Will the Opposition Thank Pashinyan for His Congratulations? Saghatelyan Details

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan congratulated the opposition "Hayastan" and "Pativ Unem" alliances today during a government meeting on their parliamentary success, urging for constructive work.

Hraparak.am inquired with Ishkhan Saghatelyan, a representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and a member of the "Hayastan" alliance, whether they would thank Pashinyan for his congratulations and what their response to this congratulation would be. Saghatelyan responded, "There is no issue of responding to the congratulations, because we have stated that we do not agree with the results of these elections, and in fact, this regime has been re-elected using its administrative resources, numerous cases of election fraud, and widespread repression, which continues to this day."

- During today’s government meeting, Nikol Pashinyan also talked about collaborating, avoiding hate speech, violence, insults, and degrading language in work with both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary forces. What is your response to this?

- First, it should be noted that the hate speech was introduced into the political arena by the acting Prime Minister. Over the past three years, he has issued continuous calls for violence himself, declaring things like "I’ll lay you on the asphalt" and "I’ll cut off your little paws"; he has taken the hammer and fallen into the streets, dividing society into black and white. Therefore, he should start with himself, and we are not the addressees of all this. We have always opposed the spread of hate speech and have consistently spoken about its destructive consequences over the last three years.

- He also stated that his party is ready for constructive work based on mutual respect both inside and outside the National Assembly; one could say that Pashinyan is extending a hand of reconciliation to the opposition. Are you ready to shake that hand?

- In this sense, his statement is one of those that says one thing and does entirely another. If they think they can kidnap our friends, arrest our supporters, repress them, hand over a large part of Artsakh to the enemy, bring the country to the brink of disaster, and come to converse with us about constructive relations, they are tragically mistaken. At this moment, two of our faction’s deputies are essentially abducted. The other two mayors, Arush Arushanyan and Manvel Paramazyan, as well as several other members and supporters of the alliance, are either arrested or being pursued by law enforcement agencies. Therefore, before making such a speech, Nikol Pashinyan should take two steps: release everyone and cease the repressions, close the social media accounts funded by himself or the oligarchs supporting him, and urgently shut down all the unknown and known websites and YouTube channels that spread absolutely false, misleading, and divisive materials every minute. Naturally, the one who authored today’s speech cannot accomplish this because it is based on all of these things.