After A Day of Strikes and Celebrations, RPA Relents

Yesterday’s elections with the National Assembly yielded disappointing results for the hundreds of thousands of protesters hoping to elect opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan as the country’s prime minister. At the end of the eight-hour special parliamentary session, Pashinyan took the podium, and first addressing the thousands of protesters waiting anxiously in Republic Square, told them to wait and that he would join them shortly. He then began a sharp address to Republican Party (RPA) MPs in the room.

“Today I was accused heavily from this platform of being a threat, and of attempting to destroy the Republican Party,” stated Pashinyan. “I would now like to announce officially that I do not have any such intentions, because the Republican party has already destroyed itself— immediately and irreversibly—through today’s debate, questions, and discussions. The force that announces war against its own people cannot exist, and what we are witnessing now is not a Republican party, but its ghost. And there can be no second opinion here.”