Sargsyan-Tsarukyan "tongue fu" poisoning political atmosphere

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The political turmoil in Armenia is about to reach its climax following a "tongue fu" between the country's leader and opposition foregoer.

Troika, the union of three leading opposition parties in the post-Soviet country decided to hold a scaly protest march in the capital city Yerevan on February 20.

The Prosperous Armenia Party, the Armenian National Congress and the Heritage Party will reportedly chant against the recent attack of the authorities to Gagik Tsarukyan, PAP leader. The opposition forces don't seem to turn a blind eye to what they view as a government crackdown on Tsarukyan.

On February 12, President Serzh Sargsyan ardently called Tsarukyan an evil for Armenia's statehood and immediately ordered to "neutralize" the popular opposition protagonist.

Sargsyan called for cancellation of Tsarukyan's membership at the country's Security Council. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan ordered an audit check to verify reports on Tsarukyan's clandestine activities to hide huge amounts of money in taxes under the guise of charitable activities. He also accused the PAP head of being involved in creating mechanisms for covering up crimes.

The government's decision to put pressure on Tsarukyan were repelled by the opposition forces, calling it a political persecution against the opposition leader nicknamed Dodi Gogo, who has voiced his presidential ambitions recently.

Tsarukyan, who avoided an overt demand for Sargsyan’s resignation until recently, turned to a counter-attack, urging a total change of power in Armenia during his speech on February 13.

Meeting late on Sunday, the leaders of troika forces Tsarukyan, Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Raffi Hovannisian reportedly shook hands for an urgent nationwide rally to discuss the current situation with citizens and to make a decision for resolving the situation.

The next presidential election in Armenia is scheduled to be held in 2018. Despite that the constitution prevents Sargsyan from running for the third term, the PAP and other opposition forces believe that the president plans to retain his power even after his second and last term in office.

They claim that the constitutional reform initiated by the current administration is in fact a tool at the hand of the ruling party to achieve this goal.

President Sargsyan has repeatedly assured his opponents that he will not be among the candidates in the next presidential poll in 2018. The reform the president claimed, indeed targets promoting further democratization of Armenia.

Sargsyan's toughening approach towards Tsarukyan is boiling the already tensed political atmosphere in Armenia. Tsarukyan's reported ally, former president of the country Robert Kocharyan immediately left Kiev for Yerevan on February 13, said Armlur.am, a local media outlet.

Kocharyan is persistently linked to allegations about hidden plans to regain the power in Armenia. Tsarukyan has been viewed as a close ally, who will reportedly make a ground for his re-rise to power following Sargsyan's overthrow.