The Shadow Agreement Between Tsarukyan and Pashinyan: '168 Hours'

According to the '168 Hours' newspaper, the discussion and adoption of the government's program in the National Assembly has, among other layers, become an important acknowledgment of the passive nature of the 'Prosperous Armenia' faction. To put it mildly, passivity.

During the program's discussion, the members of the Prosperous Armenia party made several speeches that only superficially adhered to the rules of the opposition genre. Their speeches noticeably lacked the characteristic pathos and populism with which they used to accuse previous governments.

In his concluding remarks, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan hardly addressed the criticisms from the Prosperous Armenia faction, if they can indeed be called criticisms. Pashinyan's speech made it clear that the conflict is primarily occurring between the government and the 'Bright Armenia' party.

This means that at least regarding the parliamentary discussions of the government program, 'Bright Armenia' has established itself as the leading parliamentary opposition force against the government.

It is certain that the members of the Prosperous Armenia faction are aware of this. Therefore, a question arises: why did 'Prosperous Armenia' and Gagik Tsarukyan concede their positions to the force led by Edmon Marukyan? This move had no political motivation for 'Prosperous Armenia'.

On the contrary, this faction should have used the government program discussions to strengthen its position as the primary opposition force, thus securing itself as the foremost entity responsible for overseeing the government in the public consciousness. And if there are no public reasons to take such a step, then those reasons must be sought in non-public domains, in political backstage.

It appears we are dealing with a shadow agreement between Nikol Pashinyan and Gagik Tsarukyan, which could have included several conditions. It is not ruled out that in exchange for less harsh criticism of the government program, Pashinyan has committed to not dismissing many Prosperous Armenia members from their posts, including deputy governors and heads of ministries, some of whom have found refuge in the government since the revolution and continue to work even after 'Prosperous Armenia' exited the coalition.

It is possible that the agreement included other layers and developments that will become visible in the future.

There is also a possibility that Pashinyan will allocate more positions to Gagik Tsarukyan at the second or third levels. It is also possible that no positions were negotiated, and the one imposing conditions was Nikol Pashinyan—soft criticism in exchange for continuing inspections in Tsarukyan's businesses. The fact is that recent inspections at gas stations owned by Tsarukyan revealed violations amounting to millions of drams, and perhaps this process could have continued if Prosperous Armenia had adopted a hard-critical stance against the government program.

In the new political landscape of New Armenia, it is quite challenging for Gagik Tsarukyan to position himself.

He has been accustomed to the rules of the game established by previous systems. This does not mean that the new system has no rules of the game. Not at all.

However, these rules perhaps make Gagik Tsarukyan's political life more complicated. It's no coincidence that, according to media reports, he has already requested permission from the leadership of the National Assembly to be absent from sessions. Perhaps this is also part of the arrangement with Nikol Pashinyan.