Parliament Votes to Dissolve Itself on May 10, Paving way for the conduct of fresh elections in late June.

Sargsyan and Kocharyan had led Karabakh during its successful 1991-1994 war with Azerbaijan. Like virtually all Armenian opposition leaders, the ex-presidents hold Pashinyan responsible for the outcome of the second war stopped by a Russian-mediated truce accord last November.

Another former president, Levon Ter-Petrosian, charged last week that Pashinyan and his political team have “failed in all areas.”

Pashinyan scoffed at such claims. “We take many things for granted,” he said. “After that catastrophe [of November 2020] not a single gunshot has been fired in Armenia. Do you realize what this means? Could this have happened under a government that has failed in all areas of governance?”

The prime minister also said that unlike their predecessors he and other senior Armenian officials have not enriched themselves by sharing in the profits of lucrative businesses.

Taguhi Tovmasyan, an independent lawmaker who left the ruling My Step bloc in November, countered that none of the country’s former rulers has been convicted or even accused of such corrupt practices under the current authorities.

“Who and what has benefited from whose business?” Tovmasyan asked. “And how have they been punished in the post-revolution Armenia for the sake of restoring justice?”

Calls for Alliance of Former Leaders

Ter-Petrosian defended on Friday his public calls for Armenia’s two other former presidents to form an electoral alliance with him and jointly try to oust Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s “criminal and nation-destroying regime.”

Ter-Petrosian revealed on Wednesday, May 5, that he floated the idea at a March 25 meeting with the two. He said Kocharyan rejected it out of hand while Sargsyan “did not express any opinion.” He said he is “publicly repeating my proposal” because he believes Pashinyan’s reelection would spell further trouble for Armenia.

Both ex-presidents swiftly turned down the proposal, saying that they are planning to enter other alliances ahead of the snap parliamentary elections expected in June.

Ter-Petrosian’s readiness to team up with the two other ex-presidents is remarkable given the long history of mutual antagonism between them. For many years he was highly critical of his successors’ policies and track records.

The three men met in October for the first time in decades to discuss ways of stopping the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. Ter-Petrosian and Kocharyan offered to jointly travel to Moscow for urgent talks with Russian leaders.

Pashinyan reportedly refused to authorize them to negotiate on behalf of his administration. He later questioned the sincerity and seriousness of the ex-presidents’ initiative, prompting angry reactions from them.

Like other opposition figures, all three ex-presidents blame Pashinyan for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war. Ter-Petrosian said in March that Pashinyan must step down and “at least temporarily” leave the country to end its post-war political crisis. The prime minister reacted scathingly to that statement.