Former Chief of the General Staff of the Armenian Armed Forces Colonel General Onik Gasparyan, in an article published today in Armlur.am, accuses PM Nikol Pashinyan of being a cheap populist showman and warns him to tone down his empty rhetoric during the ongoing election campaign.

Gasparyan charges Pashinyan of feeding people “baseless emotional statements” to cover up the failings of the government.

There’s been an ongoing war of words between Gasparyan and Pashinyan following Armenia’s defeat in last year’s Karabakh war.

On February 25 of this year, Gasparyan and other senior commanders signed a statement calling on Pashinyan to resign. That same day, Pashinyan announced that he had sacked Gasparyan. Pashinyan said the statement by the army's top brass amounted to a military coup attempt. Lieutenant-General Artak Davtyan replaced Gasparyan.

In the article, Gasparyan writes that he’s ready to assume all responsibility for his actions during the war, unlike Pashinyan.

“I am convinced that after the change of power, an objective investigation will be held, and each official will get what he deserves. Listen Nikol, do not go beyond the bounds of decency. I know that you are the greatest master of cheap shows, and that you cover up the absolute inability to govern the state by feeding the society baseless emotional statements,” Gasparyan writes.

Gasparyan says that Pashinyan is good at handing out political flyers to subway riders and jokes that many throw the flyers back in the prime minister’s face.

“Anyway, Nikol, thank you for not blaming me for Kennedy's assassination,” Gasparyan writes.

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