YYEREVAN, May 26. /TASS/. Armenia’s Tavush for the Homeland, which is holding a rally in downtown Yerevan, has proposed Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan as candidate for the country’s prime minister.
"We have been holding meeting and discussions for a month. We met with representatives from various spheres, political parties and public movements. The absolute majority of people we talked to shared the opinion that Bagrat Galstanyan should be a candidate for prime minister," Gurgen Malikyan, a movement leader, told the rally.
These words were met with an outburst of enthusiasm by the demonstrators.
"From the very first day, I have been saying that this is not a struggle of expectations, because people have always been fighting for their expectations - office, positions, money. I have never laid any claims for any offices or titles and I am not going to do this. This movement is against lies and in the name of the truth and with God’s blessing it has led us to this result and I am sure will lead to the next one," Galstanyan said.
Grass-roots protests against the delimitation and demarcation of the border with Azerbaijan in the Tavush region and ceding four villages to Baku are coordinated by the Tavush for the Homeland movement. The movement is led by archbishop Bagrat, who has been accused by government- and Western-sponsored mass media, bloggers and experts of being paid by Russia to organize the protests. The movement demands Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s resignation blaming him for ceding territories to Azerbaijan.