YEREVAN, February 16. /ARKA/. In an exclusive interview with ArmNews TV channel, Armenia’s former president Serzh Sargsyan spoke about the history of his acquaintance with prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and denied allegations that Pashinyan was his “project.”
“The future capitulator appeared in my sight in the early 90s, more specifically, at the end of 1993. I was then Minister of Defense for several months and after many successes, we had some problems at the front (during the first Artsakh war ) and (he) manipulating these problems, citing facts that were not really relevant, unreasonably criticizing simply hurt us – not only me, but also my comrades in arms,” Sargsyan said.
The second time, according to the ex-president, their meeting took place in the late 90s in court, and for the third time – at the Marriott Hotel in 2018.
“There were no other meetings and contacts, even through intermediaries, there were no telephone conversations. Physically, I saw this man three times,” he said.
Sargsyan also said that after Pashinyan became prime minister, there were no attempts to establish contact with him, “for which I am glad, because I had no such desire.”
“I would never meet him face to face alone. I didn’t have such a desire,” he said in response to the remark that during the war in Artsakh there was talk about the possibility of meeting of all three former presidents with Pashinyan.
Speaking about the information circulated in the society that Pashinyan is his “project,” Sargsyan called it funny.
“I would not wish such a project even to the enemy,” he said. In response to the remark that there is an opinion that he could have avoided painful decisions on Karabakh and passed it on to someone else, Sargsyan said: “The capitulator is not my project.”
“He is the ‘project’ of those forces with whom I would never have anything to do. With them I had only contradictions – in the sense that my ideas about the development of Armenia and Artsakh differed significantly from the ideas of those forces. The capitulator was chosen by our people, our deceived people with the direction of these forces. And all those who disseminate this thesis, let them not try to put the blame on me,” he stressed.
Pashinyan was elected prime minister on May 8, 2018 by the National Assembly. Pashinyan was an opposition member of parliament and the leader of the peaceful protests which had forced Serzh Sargsyan, who had been the country’s president from 2008 to 2018 and following the change from the presidential to parliamentary political system- the prime minister from 17th to 24th April to resign.
Pashinyan, who was the only candidate, was supported not only by his party, the Yelk bloc (Way Out) but also by the remaining opposition parties and several members of the parliament of the Republican Party of Armenia which was in power until then and held 58 seats in the 105-seat parliament.