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Armenia’s opposition leader slams accusations against him as nonsense

Earlier on Wednesday, the Investigative Committee launched a criminal case against Vazgen Manukyan for calls to seize power

YEREVAN, March 3. /TASS/. Leader of Armenia’s opposition Fatherland Salvation Movement Vazgen Manukyan has blasted the accusations of calls to seize power brought up against him by the national Investigative Committee as nonsense.

"The accusations that were put forward by the Investigative Committee are complete nonsense," he told TASS. "It is hard to scare me with something like this."

Earlier on Wednesday, the committee launched a criminal case against Manukyan for calls to seize power and forcefully change the constitutional basis of the country. He is facing up to three years in prison.

Manukyan served as prime minister and defense minister in different years. Amid the political crisis in Armenia that has been going on since last November, the Fatherland Salvation Movement that united more than a dozen parties named Manukyan as its candidate for prime minister to form a temporary government in case incumbent Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan resigns.

Armenia plunged into protests last November when the opposition declared Pashinyan responsible for the conditions he signed in the trilateral statement with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Russia to stop hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone. However, the political crisis exacerbated further Armenia’s General Staff issued a statement demanding that the prime minister and the government step down on February 25. Pashinyan slammed that move by the top brass as an attempted military coup and announced a decision to sack the chief of the General Staff.

Armenia’s President Armen Sarkissian, who is authorized by the national constitution to appoint and dismiss the chief of the General Staff at the prime minister’s behest, on Saturday refused to sign the decree removing the general. After that, Pashinyan sent back the decree to the president, but Sarkissian once again refused to dismiss him on Tuesday. However, the decision will automatically enter into force even without the president’s signature unless he refers Pashinyan’s proposal to the Constitutional Court by March 3. At the same time, the Sarkissian is yet to announce his course of actions. Meanwhile, he has been holding consultations with various political forces this whole time.