At a public rally on September 10 in Yerevan, Civil Contract (Kaghakatsiakan Paymanagir) Party Council member Lena Nazaryan declared that, on behalf of the party she was nominating MP Nikol Pashinyan as the future prime minister of Armenia, proposing that he start to form a shadow government.

Nazaryan argued that with the transition of governance in Armenia from a presidential to a parliamentary system, in 2018, the post of prime minister would be a crucial one.

Sasoun Mikayelyan, a member of the Civil Contract Council, declared that he regarded armed struggle as the only way out left to the people given the current political and economic climate in Armenia.

Mikayelyan, an Artsakh War vet, told the crowd that the recent call by President Sargsyan to form a national unity government is merely a ploy on the eve of local elections to shift the people’s attention from the correct path of struggle.

Alen Simonyan, president of the party’s council, opened the rally by referring to the recent resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan, noting that it would change nothing.

“Those individuals, those ministers and prime ministers, have only one important task to perform from the day they are appointed. They must, at the necessary time and place, lie on the sacrificial altar and save Serzh Sargsyan,” Simonyan said.

Civil Contract President Arayik Haroutyunyan noted that the party’s main aim was “a happy individual and a considerate public, and to have a strong state”.

“Dear compatriots, we have serious plans to bring serious changes to Armenia. We are that force that has learnt form the failures of the opposition movements and political forces of the past 25 years. That’s the reason why we do not scream and yell 2-3 times daily that we will do regime change. We don’t want to annoy our citizens, parents, making promises above our capabilities,” Haroutyunyan declared.