Tuesday, May 1 2018 13:21

ArmInfo.The "Make a step" initiative, launched just one month ago from Gyumri, had a dramatic and pivotal significance for the internal political situation in Armenia. On May 1, the leader of the "Make a Step" movement, the opposition member from the Elk faction, the candidate for the country's premier Nikol Pashinyan, announced from the rostrum of the National Assembly at a special session of the parliament.

He added that the march started from Gyumri with a length of 215 km,  14 days later it reached Yerevan and passed into many thousands  peaceful demonstrations and actions of disobedience, which became the  most massive protest in the history of the third Republic of Armenia.  According to him, the protest actions were held in all areas without  exception, under the slogan "Make a step, reject Serzh" and pursued  the goal to stop the attempt of the third president of Armenia Serzh  Sargsyan to continue to stay in power. Pashinyan recalled that  despite the thousands strong rallies, Sargsyan on April 17, the  parliamentary majority was elected the Prime Minister of Armenia,  which further aggravated the internal political situation in Armenia,  and the protests took a more mass character and embraced the entire  Diaspora.

At the same time, the opposition MP stated that mass detentions,  including him and several other deputies of the Armenian parliament,  blew up the internal political situation in Armenia, and on April 23  Sargsyan was forced to resign. "It seemed that the time had come for  a peaceful settlement of the situation, and the ruling elite must  recognize the reality that was in place in the country and transfer  the power to the people without shocks, but the ruling Republican  Party headed by Serzh Sargsyan in his retirement was looking for ways  to preserve power." The RPA intended to appoint a new prime minister  and continue to stay in power.  It was guided by the fact that the  main requirement is fulfilled and they can continue to operate  freely, but they did not take into account one important circumstance  - the move "Make a step, reject Serzh" was not directed against the  individual, it was against the existing system that Serzh Sargsyan  personifies, that is, the people's goal is not to change one person  for another, but to eradicate a corrupt, illegal, brutal system in  the country," the oppositionist said.

At the same time, he added that the RPA's attempts to replace  Sargsyan with vice-premier Karen Karapetyan further exacerbated the  situation in the country. According to him, the people's protests,  covering even the most remote villages, forced the RPA to make an  important decision and not nominate a candidate for the premiers of  Armenia in the May 1 elections. According to the deputy, the  situation developed in such a way that the movement embracing the  whole country and the Diaspora itself put forward a single candidate  for premieres and formed an unshakable demand to elect a people's  deputy to the head of the government without any preconditions. "It  seemed that, at least in this situation, the RPA will soberly assess  the situation in the country, and will be guided by the state and  national interests of the country, will listen to the people's voice  and bring its contribution to the de jure fixation of this national  revival. Serzh Sargsyan continues to play "cat mice" with his own  people and has not yet announced that he will vote for the people's  candidate, although it is obvious that this is the only way to  overcome the internal political crisis in the country, I am on the  path of stable development to Armenia, "Pashinyan said.

At the same time, he stressed that the movement, based on its own  ideology of love and tolerance, as well as national unity, with its  own steps created all the opportunities for a worthy withdrawal of  Serzh Sargsyan and the RPA. "Since yesterday evening, there have been  messages in the air" that Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan  personally began to exert pressure on all the deputies of the  National Assembly of Armenia, threaten them with a demand not to vote  for a candidate from the people. The well-known tandem developed a  new project to exert pressure on the people's movement and return and  the main tool remains the same - they are threats, physical violence,  psychological pressure, compromising materials. And I want to clearly  fix this high rostrum, you did not understand the gentlemen and  continue not to understand the current situation in the country, and  I want you straight to warn that your attempts to interpret the  tolerance of the popular movement as a weakness can lead to  unpredictable and undesirable consequences.) Come to your senses, it  is not too late, since your similar behavior can cause political  tsunami," Pashinyan said.

At the same time, he called on the citizens of Armenia with an appeal  to take to the streets, fill all the streets and squares of Yerevan  in order to prevent the people from winning their own victory. With  such a request, Pashinyan also appealed to the Diaspora.