Armenian ex-president's support sinks Galstanyan's chances Political loser backing clown cleric

Of course, the former Karabakh separatist and third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, is of meagre mind. In the sense that he rarely shines with intellect. This was proved once again by Sargsyan himself, when he decided to share with Armenian journalists his views on the future of the country, which is sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp of internal political confrontation.

"Sargsyan, in his usual manner of trying to impart significance to his statement, said, 'Not only I, but also our party, all our supporters, support the candidate nominated by the leader of the In the Name of the Motherland movement, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan.' In reality, however, the number of Sargsyan's supporters is very small. This was evidenced by the snap parliamentary elections in 2021. In those elections, the alliance formed by the Republican Party of Armenia and Artur Vanetsyan's Fatherland' party received only 5.22 per cent of the votes from the electorate, gaining 7 seats in the National Assembly. Less than 67,000 citizens of Armenia voted for this political alliance. Moreover, this happened shortly after Armenia's defeat in the 44-day war, when opponents of Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had the maximum chance to capitalize on the bitterness of the country's population over the collapse of its myths. But neither Serzh Sargsyan nor Robert Kocharyan achieved anything substantial. Almost 54 per cent of Armenian citizens who went to the polling stations then cast their votes for Pashinyan's 'Civil Contract' party."

Yes, from then until now, the revanchists are bending over backwards to return to power. But the strength of contempt for them in Armenian society far exceeds the strength of dissatisfaction with certain actions of Pashinyan and his team. Nikol Pashinyan's rating, no matter how you twist it, is higher than the combined rating of all his main opponents. As for Serzh Sargsyan's personal rating, it is within the margin of error. So, his words of support for anyone, including someone more resembling a clown like Bagrat Galstanyan, only do him a “disservice”.

Even more so, on the day when Sargsyan uttered his pearl, Galstanyan had big troubles. After all, he publicly called for mass disorder by a group of individuals in conspiracy. This was done during a provocation orchestrated by Bagrat and his accomplices in front of the Armenian Foreign Ministry building. And for such antics, Galstanyan may well face not the prime minister's chair, but imprisonment for a term of two to five years. But Serzh Sargsyan pretends not to understand even that. “Galstanyan said he is a candidate, so we support him,” he uttered. In other words, according to the reasoning of the third president of Armenia, just Bagrat's desire is enough for everything to be as he wants. And the revanchists couldn't care less about the opinion of the majority of citizens in their country.

Serzh Sargsyan even came up with a way to bypass the Armenian Constitution, according to which the holder of a Canadian passport, Bagrat Galstanyan, cannot be elected prime minister. Sargsyan actively shares his speculations with Armenian society, not even realizing how absurd and ridiculous he looks. After all, just six years ago, there was the so-called “Barbecue Revolution”. It began precisely in response to Serzh Sargsyan's desire to switch from the presidential chair to the prime minister's, in order to continue governing the country from there. That revolution was known for slogans like “Take a step, reject Serzh” (including the hashtag #RejectSerzh, which spread on social media), “Put down your weapons, reject Serzh!”, “Police, join us!”, “Against Serzh, sound the alarm.” Has all of this been so quickly forgotten?! And what was the outcome of this whole story? On April 22, 2018, negotiations between Pashinyan and Sargsyan took place at the Marriott Armenia hotel. Pashinyan was categorical, insisting on discussing the timing of Sargsyan's resignation. The negotiations collapsed then, but only for a day. Already on April 23, 2018, Serzh Sargsyan resigned.

And now, six years later, this political loser and blowhard, who failed to hold onto power, is giving advice on taking over. Ridiculous and ridiculous? Sure. But one should not expect anything else from Serzh Sargsyan, as well as from other artists of the Armenian political scene.