Karapetyan says talks with Pashinyan in front of the media have no prospect

Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Karen Karapetyan will not participate in the talks with the leader if the “Velvet Revolution” Nikol Pashinyan, Karapetyan’s spokesman Aram Araratyan has said in a statement.

“Another invitation from Nikol Pashinyan has almost no difference with the previous one, with the only exception that he does not tell with whom to go for negotiations. Karen Karapetyan’s response remains the same. The talks where one side dictates the agenda, while the other side cannot present it, cannot be treated as talks. Besides, Karen Karapetyan still believes that having talks in front of the media means that the aim of the talks is not in fixing some results. So, the acting prime minister finds it having no prospects to participate in talks that have no chance for a solution. According to Karen Karapetyan, Mr. Pashinyan needs to accept the proposal of the Armenian president addressed to all parliamentary and non-parliamentary forces to discuss the current situation in the country and ways for its solution altogether,” the statement runs.

Earlier, the leader of the “Velvet Revolution” in Armenia MP Nikol Pashinyan said he had a meeting with President Armen Sargsyan and discussed the situation in the country with him.

At a rally on April 26, Pashinyan said he would be ready for talks with Karapetyan only in the presence of reporters. He invited the acting prime minister to an open meeting to Marriott Hotel on April 27.

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan resigned amid protests against his election as prime minister. In a message to the nation he acknowledged that there were several options in that situation, but he saw the only way out – to resign.

As EADaily reported earlier, Yerevan has been ridden by mass protest actions since April 13. The protesters were against former president Serzh Sargsyan becoming prime minister. At a rally on April 17, the leader of the protest movement Nikol Pashinyan declared start of a “Velvet Revolution” in the republic. On the same day, the Armenian parliament voted for appointing Serzh Sargsyan to the prime minister’s post: 77 MPs voted for it, 17 MPs were against.

After a constitutional reform was approved by a referendum in 2015, Armenia switched from the presidential to parliamentary republic. Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan was supposed to have all power levers concentrated in his hands. Armen Sargsyan elected as president on April 2 was to have only representative functions.