Armenia needs to hold snap parliamentary elections - first Armenian president Ter-Petrosyan
YEREVAN. May 10 (Interfax) - Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will no longer be able to influence political processes in the country by means of protests and civil disobedience, according to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia's first president, who held this post from 1991 to 1998.
"Today, many people are trying to evaluate the unusual situation in relations between the parliament and the government politically. The parliamentary majority has declared itself an opposition force, while the executive branch of government is seen as a minority government," Ter-Petrosyan wrote in an article published on the Armenian website iLur.am.
"What does Pashinyan's new government have to compensate for this? To date, he used nationwide protests and disobedience to impose his will on the parliament. The international community treated all this with understanding, as a manifestation of democracy. But will he be able to influence the National Assembly using the same method from now on? Obviously, he won't, because this resource has already been exhausted," he wrote.
It is one thing is if a person imposes his own will on the parliament as the leader of a popular movement; it is another if he does so in the capacity of prime minister, Ter-Petrosyan wrote.
"In this case, such a style of work won't get the international community's approval. Consequently, as many people realize, the only way out of this situation, which is extremely dangerous for the country, is to hold early parliamentary elections, after making core changes to the Elections Code, of course," Ter-Petrosyan wrote.