Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan welcomes ARF parliamentary faction head Armen Rustamyan

ARF Says it Will Not Nominate Candidate for Prime Minister

YEREVAN—Armenian Revolutionary Federation leaders on Tuesday met with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to discuss the political developments in the country as they relate to the organization of the snap parliamentary elections, which Pashinyan would like to hold in December.

The leader of the ARF parliamentary bloc Armen Rustamyan was joined with his fellow lawmaker Spartak Seyranyan, both of whom serve on the ARF Bureau. They were accompanied by ARF Supreme Council of Armenia chairperson, Arsen Hambartsumyan. Seyranyan and Hambartsumyan met with Pashinyan on Friday along with ARF Bureau member Mourad Papazian.

Before the meeting Rustamyan told reporters that the ARF would not nominate its own candidate for the post of prime minister, saying that his party, even after the 2017 parliamentary elections, had no plans to advance its own nominee for the post.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan with ARF representatives from far right Spartak Seyranyan, Armen Rustamyan and Arsen Hambartsumyan

“The ARF said a long time ago that nominating a candidate for prime minister with seven people makes no sense,” Rustamyan told reporters. “We are in favor of parliamentary elections to take place in normal conditions. That way the people will get to decide [their fate],” explained Rustamyan.

“I attach great importance to this discussion and want to state that I greatly appreciate ARF’s activity and role in our contemporary political life. I hope that our discussions, political processes and the political situation will move forward based on the logic of continuation of cooperation, and of course, we are ready to do everything for that,” Pashinyan told the ARF representatives.

“I am convinced that you too have the same perception. We need to be in constant dialogue in this political situation and discuss the issues. I don’t want to say that we hope that we will not have problems, since they are generally commonplace in any democratic country. We just need to be able to discuss them from the perspective of facts, dialogue and consideration of the political situation, the logic of the situation in the country, national interests, and the interests of the people,” added Pashinyan.

“We are confident that we should continue cooperating with each other for the benefit of our country, our state, to come up with solution for both domestic and foreign challenges facing our country. In this regard, the ARF’s full support has always existed and will continue to exist,” Rustamyan told Pashinyan.
“At this stage, it is very important for us to be able to resolve all issues with mutual respect, and by listening to each other’s views and amalgamating them since a healthy cooperation also supposes discussions over certain issues, and why not also debates. I am confident that we will reach a common conclusion as a result, since our goal is really the same,” added Rustamyan.

“From the very start we greatly appreciated the new turn of events—the revolution that took place in Armenia—and we really believe that the revolution has stages to pass. The element of rejection was also important for us and it was aimed to reject all the shortcomings and mistakes of the past. It is necessary to recalibrate and being quickly rebuilding, and here you can always rely on our complete support,” explained Rustamyan.