Political scientist: There is no need to talk about the unification  of the opposition in the absence of social demand

ArmInfo.There is no need to talk about the unification of the opposition, and primarily the one that represents the old authorities, in the absence of a social  demand.  Political scientist,  Director of the Yerevan-based Caucasus  Institute Alexander Iskandaryan expressed a such opinion to  journalists.

He noted that as of today in the sector of domestic politics and the  alignment of political forces, a typical for Armenia picture has  developed, in which the opposition is not able to unite, since it  does not see real prospects for itself. "It makes sense to unite when  there is a prospect to break through the wall, if there is a  prospect, uniting, to win. Yes, then it makes sense to unite. If  there is no such prospect, then there is no need to unite, "the  political scientist emphasized.

According to him, the divided opposition leaders feel quite  comfortable in these conditions, since they do not consider it  expedient to "lie under someone else". <The problem is not to bring  people together, the problem is to create people. Even today's  opposition, consisting of old and new ones, so to speak, can not do  anything even if it unites, because there is no main thing - a social  demand, without a public demand, it is simply pointless to do  anything," Iskandaryan stressed.

Developing the topic, the political scientist noted that the  revolution of 2018 did not happen by chance, it was obvious that the  situation was moving towards this. "The former government,  represented by the Republican Party, had very little social  legitimacy, and with a rating of no more than 15% it is impossible to  live forever - this was even then understandable to any qualified  analyst," the political scientist emphasized, noting that the talk  about such force majeure , like the coronavirus crisis, is incapable  of being the primary factor for a change of power. "This happens when  the authorities have very low legitimacy.  Then any non-standard  event that happens can become a catalyst for domestic political  problems. If the authorities have high legitimacy, then such  situations do not turn into force majeure.

The political scientist did not deny that not everything is smooth in  Armenia as of today and the new government also makes mistakes and  the problems are visible. "But it is also clear that the fall in the  ratings of the authorities is not so fast. Nikol Pashinyan's ratings  cannot be compared in any way with Serzh Sargsyan's ratings in 2010,  that is, after 2 years of the latter's coming to power. Even then,  Sargsyan came to power with a low rating. He kind of adapted to lead  the country, having a low rating. Republican power has generally  learned to exist with low ratings. Of course, they did not get  pleasure from it, but they found technical methods - rigging  elections, batching processes as needed. 

But the mistake was that the Republicans thought that this could be  done forever. It doesn't happen like that, "Iskandaryan noted.   According to the political scientist, the ratings of the current  Armenian government are high and are declining slowly. 

"This is a rather slow process, because a certain social discontent  existing in society, in order to turn into a political one, must  result in a so-called" political channel ". But this political  channel does not exist. And the channels of the old government that  it is now offering to the disaffected will not work. 

The society of the old government does not believe, an ordinary  Armenian citizens does not believe it. As soon as they  believe in  something, the channel will work, but not yet, "the political  scientist concluded.