Robert Kocharyan: Today`s opposition field is more competitive than  in previous elections, and that`s a fact

ArmInfo. Unlike previous elections, the opposition field is more competitive today, and that's a fact, as stated by Robert Kocharyan, the second president of the Republic of Armenia and leader of the opposition Armenia bloc, in an interview with RTVI.

According to him, Samvel Karapetyan's team began the election  campaign much earlier; they have been promoting a new political force  since September-October. "We only started a month ago. Therefore, I  wouldn't get too carried away with sociology right now: the field is  truly competitive. Unfortunately, sociology is becoming more of a  tool for influencing public opinion than a tool for measuring, so to  speak, the political temperature in the country. We'll see; the  elections will tell. In this case, I simply agree that a more  competitive environment is, in this regard, more interesting, perhaps  for political strategists, and more tense for the participants... "  He added that while the environment is "interesting" for political  technologists, it is increasingly "tense" for the participants. "  Therefore, 'interesting' and 'tense' are somewhat different concepts.  That's the situation. We have no intention of giving up on this yet –  we'll see," stated the second president of the Republic of Armenia.

Robert Kocharyan expressed disagreement with the statement that the  leader of the opposition today is Samvel Karapetyan, leader of the  Strong Armenia party. He argued that equating the entire opposition  movement with one individual is "politically and technologically  illiterate." "There are several large opposition formats, each of  which is aiming for victory. You can talk about someone being ahead  in the polls, but that doesn't make them the 'leader of the  opposition' in the sense of uniting the entire field. That is not the  case. Pashinyan claims that he is opposed by a 'three-headed war  party': Robert Kocharyan, Samvel Karapetyan, and Gagik Tsarukyan,"  the former president noted.

When asked why the opposition remains fragmented into different  blocs, Kocharyan explained that while parties share the common goal  of removing the current government, they remain distinct political  units.  "In the last elections, I was at the forefront, but I wasn't  a 'unified' leader of the opposition. You might be ahead in sociology  or the scale of your rallies, but you aren't the leader for the other  opposition parties.  Each party has its own goal—to win. If there  were a single leader, they would have unified the opposition into one  political unit. Since that didn't happen in Armenia, we are  participating as separate blocs," Kocharyan concluded.