Head of Public Council: Kocharyan and Sargsyan try to take advantage  of oppositional vacuum

ArmInfo. The joint struggle of Serzh Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan against the revolution and its leader, Nikol Pashinyan, by no means cancels out their long- standing  rivalry with each other. A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo  by the Chairman of the Public Council of Armenia Stepan Safaryan,  commenting on the information that appeared in the media about the  unification of the two former presidents in the fight against the  incumbent government.

"Kocharyan cannot forgive the RPA for surrendering power to the  revolution, which led not only the RPA and Sargsyan, but also himself  and many others to a dead end. However, they fought against each  other long before that with very interesting methods, which fit into  the concept of hybrid war. For example, through the Prosperous  Armenia party of Gagik Tsarukyan, or from time to time nominating  Aram Harutyunyan in the presidential elections to criticize Serzh  Sargsyan, etc. And I don't think that much has changed now, "Safaryan  stressed.

At the same time, according to Safaryan's estimates, Kocharyan is a  more acceptable partner for Moscow in comparison with Sargsyan. First  of all, given that, as president, Sargsyan from time to time tried to  oppose the Kremlin's intentions to ''swallow'' the sovereignty of  Armenia or himself. Unlike Kocharyan, who has never refused anything  to Russia during all 10 years of his presidency.

The head of the Public Council determines the information noise  around Kocharyan and Sargsyan by the presence of a real agenda  related to them. The agenda, according to the head of the Public  Council, is exclusively criminal, which both former presidents are  trying with all their might to politicize in order to protect  themselves, in order to "save their own skin". In this light,  Safaryan noted with regret that the new political forces have so far  failed to form a real alternative agenda to strengthen the results of  the revolution. Accordingly, only these forces are guilty of this, as  well as of Kocharyan and Sargsyan's attempts to present themselves as  politicians.

"It has become very easy to develop opposition activities in today's  Armenia. Freedom of speech, freedom of the media, freedom of  democracy, which were absent in Kocharyan and Sargsyan times. The  opposition needs to find a way to convey its thoughts, agenda, ideas  to citizens. Criticism of the post-revolutionary situation should be  meaningful, well-grounded, reasoned, respectively, convincing. And it  should not be ridiculous, as today, when for example, Pashinyan is  criticized that he dared to mount a horse in the conditions of the  unresolved Karabakh problem. Unfortunately, none of the  abovementioned happens in Armenia today, "Safaryan concluded.