PM Pashinyan: Most Armenians Do Not Support Opposition Demands for Resignation

YEREVAN — Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan dismissed on Wednesday opposition demands for his resignation, saying that they are not backed by most Armenians.

“I think that the question of a government formed by the people can only be resolved by the expression of the people’s will. The fact is that the calls voiced by the opposition are not receiving the backing of the Armenian society,” he told the TASS news agency in an interview.

In response to a question about how he assesses the possibility of early parliamentary elections, Pashinyan said that now the primary task of the government and all political forces in Armenia should be to restore full stability and security to the country, explaining that he means not only internal security, but also external.

“I have published a roadmap for a six-month period, and over the next six months we must work to stabilize the situation. I mean the political situation, the security situation and economic stability. After that we will consult with our society, people and political forces and make a decision regarding further events and steps, and what to do next,” he said.

Along with that, Prime Minister Pashinyan noted that “this does not mean that everyone is happy with the situation that has now emerged in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, and so on.”

“But, to be honest, I am also not very happy, we are all unhappy with the situation that we have. But we need to understand what alternatives we have. We must work not to make the situation worse, but to stabilize the situation and improve it. And, as I said, I mean not only internal, but also external stability and security, as well as economic security and stability, and we must focus on these issues. This does not mean that the government believes that everything is fine and everything is in order. On the contrary, we believe that first we must not aggravate the situation, not make it worse,” he explained.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stressed that now there are many questions about the return of Artsakh citizens to their homes. “It is necessary to provide some social guarantees for the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh and those people who have lost their homes. It is necessary to stabilize the social and economic situation in Armenia,” he explained.

Asked whether opposition protests threaten to disrupt the agreements on Artsakh, the PM replied: “I don’t think so, because the Armenian society agrees that in the situation when this document was signed, there was no real alternative that would be better for us. Another issue that we still need to analyze, understand and answer the questions of is why everything happened and why we came to such a situation. But the fact that at the time of November 9 there was simply no alternative, I think that such a perception of the situation is present in the Armenian society,” he said.