Levon Ter-Petrosyan: Refusal of Prosperous Armenia to join the ruling coalition has weakened Serzh Sargsyan's positions

• Wednesday, June 27, 02:05

 The refusal of the Prosperous Armenia party to join the ruling coalition has weakened Serzh Sargsyan's positions, the leader of the Armenian National Congress Levon Ter-Petrosyan said during an opposition rally on Tuesday.

He said that some mass media and political parties keep saying that Prosperous Armenia's decision to become an opposition force was just a farce. "What they want is to throw Prosperous Armenia into Serzh Sargsyan's arms instead of welcoming and supporting its resolution to free itself from his grip," Ter-Petrosyan said.

He said that the regime is using financial, administrative and other mechanisms to pressure Prosperous Armenia. "But if you wish to be a serious political force, you must be ready for such pressure, otherwise you will be broken. So, the guarantee of Prosperous Armenia's viability is its readiness to go till the end in its confrontation with the regime," Ter-Petrosyan said.

He called "idiotism" the Parliament's regulation saying that a party considering itself to be an opposition force should proclaim itself as such during the first meeting of a new parliament. "If they are not part of the Government, they automatically become opposition," Ter-Petrosyan said.

To note, unlike the ANC, Heritage and ARFD, Prosperous Armenia has not officially declared its being an opposition force.