Robert Kocharyan: The man threatening war is the one under whose  leadership Armenia suffered a catastrophic war

ArmInfo. Former President Robert Kocharyan has characterized Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's claims—that the return of opposition forces to power would trigger a new war—as "blatant blackmail." 

In an interview with RTVI, the second president of Armenia pointed  out the irony of the Prime Minister's rhetoric. Kocharyan noted that  the threats are coming from a leader whose tenure has been defined by  a "catastrophically lost war" and a significant loss of life: there  was the loss of territory, the sovereign territory of Armenia, the  complete loss of Karabakh. 

" The person who is the root cause of this war, these clashes, and  these losses is now speaking of peace and attempting to associate his  image with it," Kocharyan stated. "First, this is shameless; second,  it is blackmail; and third, it is a sum of both. He is being  dishonest with the voter. Kocharyan accused Pashinyan of using the  "club" of war threats to break the will of the electorate. He argued  that the opposite is true: if Pashinyan remains in power, the threat  of war will "double or triple" because the appetites of Azerbaijan  and Turkey will only increase.  "I am talking about the threats that  Pashinyan's policy brings with it. Pashinyan's policy is obviously  expressed even in his latest statement that Azerbaijan is the  guarantor of Armenia's security. This, of course, sounds absurd, but  this  was voiced by him and the Speaker of the Armenian Parliament.  That is, it would be like the Gaza Strip suddenly declaring that  Israel is the guarantor of Palestinian security. Is such a thing even  imaginable?" the former president stated.

When asked what the Armenian electorate currently wants, Robert  Kocharyan noted that they want stability and clarity. "People are  tired of contradictory statements, hysteria, and the lack of clarity  about what is happening. Because when the authorities or those in  power can, for a week or two, make mutually exclusive statements  regarding geopolitical orientation, domestic policy, war, peace,  etc., it creates anxiety.  People love stability; they want to  understand what will happen tomorrow. During my ten years as  president, those were the most peaceful years for Armenia," the  former RA President emphasized.