Republican Party of Armenia on MOD's resignation

When Armenia’s defence minister visited Nagorno-Karabakh, the incumbent authorities immediately found a reason for his resignation. This is what Spokesperson of the Republican Party of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters.

Moreover, he recalled that one of Armenia’s foreign ministers visited Nagorno-Karabakh after the 44-day war and was relieved of the post of foreign minister.

Sharmazanov added that Armenian soldiers would participate in military parades in the Nagorno-Karabakh during the administrations of the first, second and third Presidents of Armenia, not like now when Azerbaijanis participate in those military parades.

Earlier, the Armenia defence minister was dismissed after Yerevan accused neighbouring enemy Azerbaijan of crossing into its territory, Reuters reported.

Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Azerbaijani forces had intruded into the country across an eastern section of the border, the Cabinet of Ministers’ press service has said. "Since yesterday there have been several meetings and discussions," Pashinyan said at a session of the country’s Security Council. "The issue on the agenda was the intrusion of Azerbaijani forces into Armenia’s territory across an eastern section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. The purpose of today’s meeting is to summarise the results of our discussions and to present the full information about the events to our public."

Pashinyan said he had decided to dismiss Defence Minister Arshak Karapetyan and appoint Deputy Prime Minister Suren Papikyan to perform his duties.

"Nikol Pashinyan gave a confessional testimony in parliament"

Prime Minister Pashinyan gave a confessional testimony in the National Assembly of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov told reporters, commenting on Pashinyan’s statement on the order “to not open fire.”

Sharmazanov recalled that Pashinyan had described the order as “state treason.”

“Pashinyan declared that if soldiers don’t open fire and don’t show resistance, that is state treason. This is the remark of a person who, during the Azerbaijanis’ invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory, declared that there is no need to wage a war for 30% of Sev Lake. Also, this is the remark of a person who, on December 17-18, 2020, gifted Azerbaijan tens of thousands of kilometres of Armenia’s territory, and through a verbal agreement at that,” Sharmazanov stated.

The Republican Party of Armenia is a national-conservative political party in Armenia led by the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan.

It was the first political party in independent Armenia to be founded (April 2, 1990) and registered (May 14, 1991). It is the largest party of the right-wing in Armenia and claimed to have had 140,000 members at its heyday and it was the ruling party of Armenia from 1999 to 2018. After the latest parliamentary elections in June 2021, the party entered parliament as a part of the opposition I Have Honour Alliance.

The Economist magazine has described the RPA as a "typical post-Soviet 'party of power' mainly comprising senior government officials, civil servants, and wealthy business people dependent on government connections." It has been described by political commentators as essentially lacking political ideology.