Kocharyan says Pashinyan lacks capacity to mobilize street support

Former Armenian President Robert Kocharyanz has claimed that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan no longer has the ability to mobilize supporters in the streets, despite still retaining an electoral base.

Speaking at a recent meeting with supporters, Kocharyan said Pashinyan “has no resource to bring people out to storm the Mother See”, arguing that if he did, he would not be “employing KGB-style tactics”, including pressure and compromising material.

Kocharyan accused the prime minister of launching a politically motivated campaign against the Armenian Apostolic Church, saying Pashinyan’s actions contradict his earlier claims of defending the church’s “purity”.

“If you do this through figures who are most discredited within church circles, how is that a fight for the church’s purity?” Kocharyan said, adding that the government’s recent actions made it clear the campaign was aimed at weakening a key pillar of Armenia’s national identity.

He also suggested that the pressure on the church could be linked to what he described as Pashinyan’s alleged commitment to facilitate the return of “300,000 Azerbaijanis”.