Four attacks on Pashinyan: Armenia, being dragged to hopelessness - COMMENT

A new political force was formed against the Armenian Prime Minister.

The state of emergency in connection with the coronavirus still works in favor of Pashinyan. Otherwise, he had already been knocked over by the method he had used to come to power. The government punishes the opposition and representatives of this camp in accordance with the rules of the state of emergency, imposes bans on them. Pashinyan hardly controls the government and the situation. From this standpoint, we can say that there are attacks on Yerevan from four directions.

The first direction is street protests headed by members of the "Adekvad" Public-political organization. The organization is reported controlled by Soros Foundation of the country, calls those in power "Sorosists," "Children of Soros." They consider themselves as opposition against Nikol Pashinyan's government. There are reports that they are financed by the representatives of the former government and from abroad. In April, there was a street brawl in Yerevan between the members of this organization and Deputy Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan. Head of Adekvad Artur Danielyan's photo with a broken nose had been posted on social networks. Recently, they held a protest in front of the Central Bank of Armenia against the bank's activity. The protests wanted to meet with the representative of the bank. After that, police called protesters to stop the rally. The police noted that the protest is not allowed, and they must keep the distance. However, the protesters said they did not hold a rally and just wanted to meet with a bank representative. Deputy head of Armenian Police Eduard Janoyan noted that two people had been taken to the police department. They are accused of disobeying the legal demands of the police. Currently, the curfew in Armenia prevents public demonstrations. The opposition says Nikol Pashinyan uses the state of emergency to silence the opposition.

The second direction is pressure by members of Nikol Pashinyan's former team. These forces seem to be headed by Arthur Vanesyan, former Director of Armenia National Security Service. On May 30, he held the founding congress of the Homeland Party. Vanesyan was dismissed from his post in September 2019 and said in February that he would establish a political party. The situation in connection with the pandemic did not let him create his party. However, the former Director announced his political party with a small number of participants. Vanesyan has accused the leader of his former team of lying, irresponsibility, indiscipline, destructiveness, instability, causing chaos, dilettantism, populism. At the congress, he hinted at Pashinyan's activity in the regime of "internet lives" via his Facebook account and noted that the country needs real power. Acting as the head of the state, Vanesyan said: "What forces me to do that. In a word, responsibility. I bear responsibility before the state, community, future generation."

Arthur Vanesyan noted that the social situation in Armenia becomes more difficult: "For recent months, everyone in Armenia has been facing a problem created by economic situation and economy that can't be controlled. Spontaneously making decisions, desperate activity, and not making a difference between the first-grade and the second-grade issues proved that severe threats have emerged." According to him, the Armenian economy is on the way to collapse: "Social condition of the population becomes more difficult. The main problem for people is the salary. Currently, the population in Armenian live poorly."

The founding congress of Arthur Vanesyan's Party had been postponed due to the coronavirus. Vanesyan, born in 1979, worked as the Deputy Chief of Yerevan Office of the National Security Service in 2016-2018. He has worked as the Director of the National Security Service of Armenia since May 10, 2018. He graduated from the Armenian Agricultural Academy in 1999. Later on, he graduated from Saint Petersburg Institute of Foreign Relations, Academy of Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation. Although he studied in Russia on the field where he engaged, he pretended to be the best loyal member of the Pashinyan government. Vanesyan, who sees himself as a head of state, stressed the significance of daily working with the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, the CE General Assembly, EU, and other organizations. The 9-person bureau members of his party worked at different positions in former governments. Ara Sahakyan is former Deputy Speaker of the Parliament, Arsen Babayan – former deputy head of Parliament's Staff, Robert Harutyunyan – former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Justifying the occupation of Azerbaijan's territories, Vanesyan said that the conflict needs package solution, not a settlement in stages. He announced that he would use the Karabakh issue too, which has been defining the policy and changing the power in Armenia for 30 years. In other words, along with the hard public and economic situation inside the country, Pashinyan will also be attacked by the Karabakh issue.

The third attack may be inside the government. Pashinyan's deputy Tigran Avinyan has been named in political scandals in recent times. There are reports that he will be Prime Minister soon. The "Past" newspaper in Armenia has published an article that "My Step" Alliance will be broken up, and new MPs from it will create new fractions. According to the article, the reports that the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament Ruben Rubenyan will hand over his mandate are not true: "He will quit the "My Step" Alliance. Some MPs from the ruling party will join him. They will create an informal independent MPs group. This group will be controlled by the Deputy Prime Minister Tigran Avinyan." According to the "Past," the Avinyan wing of the authority in the parliament will operate as an independent group under the leadership of Ruben Rubenyan. Yesterday, the "Hraparak" newspaper wrote that the Deputy PM will resign in mid-July. According to the newspaper, he "is on the back foot" because he did not participate in the last briefing of Pashinyan.

Moreover, Health Minister Arsen Torosyan's resignation is also on the agenda. The Deputy PM and Health Minister may be "sacrificial lamb" because of their defective activity. Therefore, there may be replacements in government in July 2020. The members of the ruling team and MPs "blacklisted" by Nikol Pashinyan will attempt to create a new fraction. Documents have been prepared against those who were in the ruling party and are against Pashinyan, and intend to create a new fraction. It's reported that their links with swindler priest Varazdat, former President Serzh Sargsyan, and his brother Vigen Sargsyan, as well as others, will be revealed.

These attacks against Pashinyan also arise from weakness and incompleteness of his teams. There are also problems in fields reformed by him. The "Joxovurd" wrote that scandal in Armenia's Military Police is escalating. This is reportedly caused by unlawful actions of acting chief of the Military Police Alexander Aghajanyan. According to information, he dismissed old personnel and recruited new ones in exchange for a bribe. Alexander Aghajanyan is head of Military Police thanks to Armenian Defense Minister David Tonoyan.

The fourth attack against Pashinyan is from abroad, which is headed by Serzh Sargsyan's son-in-law, former Ambassador of Armenia in Vatican Mikael Minasyan. He accused Pashinyan of creating a mafia system and illegally diamond trading. Mikael Minasyan said Pashinyan had lied to people for two years. According to him, the population gradually understands Pashinyan's lie statements: "The population has tired of participating in the shows by Pashinyan. As Pashinyan knows that he will lose in a referendum to the Constitution, he postponed the elections. He was helped by, firstly, the coronavirus." Armenia's former ambassador to the Vatican touched upon the diamond trading: "They bring the diamond from India illegally and supply them in 2-3 well-known plants. The plants "Armenize" these diamonds and export them without paying customs duty." As a proof, Minasyan said that Armenia exported diamond worth 40 million in the first quarter of 2020: "To refine such amount of diamond, 1,400 specialists needed. However, nearly 400 jewelers have registered in Armenia. In other words, the specialists in Armenia are not capable of refining such worth of a diamond." Mikael Minasyan has been ambassador to the Vatican since 2013. In November 2018, he was recalled from his post of ambassador to Vatican, Portugal, and Malta. A criminal case was launched against him. Nikol Pashinyan did not disprove the claims of Sargsyan's son-in-law. He spoke about criminal cases launched against Minasyan, etc. Thus, he proved that the claims from abroad are not baseless.

There are also reports that "Sorosists" have their own interests. According to the information, they are mainly targeting the posts of ambassador. The "Sorosists," firstly, try to hold ambassadors to Russia, France, and other countries. They don't intend to hold the posts of PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs. For instance, they want to see the Secretary of Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan as an ambassador to Russia. Armen Grigoryan is among the people that Moscow does not accept.

Thus, a new political force has been formed against Pashinyan. In the near future, this force may unite against him. Vanesyan had earlier noted that the unity of different political forces will save Armenia from a difficult situation.

Pashinyan is still launching a criminal case against his rivals to build his regime. Robert Kocharyan, who is in prison, will be kept in hospital until the coronavirus-related regime ends. This can be as Pashinyan's step towards those who support former President. In all cases, Pashinyan's authority is expected to face more difficult days after the pandemic. The hard situation in the country became harder by the coronavirus. Relating the current situation with coronavirus does not solve the problem. Armenian population wants to meal. All criminal cases, those arrested, liquidation of political rivals cannot cope with these. Vanesyan or Mikaelyan are not expected to cope with these either. Along with socio-economic problems, Armenia is also expected to be covered by hopelessness.