ArmInfo. Armenia's authorities want to deprive their people of national identity and turn them into mere consumers, Levon Kocharyan of the opposition parliamentary faction Armenia told reporters.
As to whether the authorities' initiative to adopt a new Constitution was discussed, Kocharyan noted that there were separate discussions, but there were no faction meetings on this topic. "As far as I understand, in connection with the Constitution, the authorities are still testing the waters, studying the mood, and introducing topics. This is unacceptable to me. This is a continuation of everything they have done so far, now they want to put it on paper. An attempt is being made to deprive us of the right to be Armenians, to turn Armenia into a territory where people inhale and exhale and, most importantly, pay taxes. It is unacceptable to deprive people of the right to be Armenians, to have dreams, to desire and strive for more, to restore historical justice. They want to deprive us of all this, leaving only the right to exist, eat and sleep," Kocharyan emphasized.
When asked whether the opposition abandoned the protests and came to terms with what was happening, Kocharyan noted: "I don't know who you mean when you say the opposition. If specifically me, the Armenia bloc, then I have not come to terms with what is happening, and I think, through my activities, I testify that I have not come to terms with it and am not going to come to terms with it. Because everything that this government, led by its leader, has done is unacceptable, a tragedy and does not fit into healthy logic. Today we have a task to explain and convince the public, to open their eyes."
At the same time, Levon Kocharyan did not rule out the resumption of street fighting.
On January 19, at the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Armenia, Pashinyan said that Armenia needs a new Constitution that will make the Republic of Armenia more viable in the new geopolitical conditions. The prime minister's counterparts stated that the initiative comes from Baku, mainly with the aim of eliminating from the Constitution references to the Declaration of Independence, which contains reference to the resolution on the reunification of the Armenian SSR and Nagorno-Karabakh. The 11th paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, which states that the Republic of Armenia supports international recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 in Ottoman Turkey, is also considered problematic.