“The time has come to remove Nikol Pashinian,” Sarkisian told reporters on Thursday.
Asked whether the HHK has a clear plan of actions for that purpose, he said: “We don't operate without a plan. We have a plan, but I don't think it makes sense to make that plan public now.”
Sarkisian hinted only that he favors trying to achieve regime change through street protests before the next parliamentary elections due in June 2026. The HHK has repeatedly staged such protests together with other major opposition groups since 2020 but failed to topple Pashinian.
“Maybe the conditions were not ripe,” Sarkisian said when asked about the failure of those campaigns. “But they are now. “All those movements have made the conditions ripe.”
Raising more questions about the plan cited by Sarkisian, the HHK’s parliamentary leader, Hayk Mamijanian, said on Friday that his political team believes a parliamentary vote of no confidence is the most realistic way of deposing Pashinian. He refused to comment on the ex-president’s remarks.
The Armenian parliament is controlled by Pashinian’s Civil Contract party. Its representatives said on Friday that they are unfazed by Sarkisian’s statement and continue to believe that elections are the only way to change the country’s government.
The HHK-dominated Pativ Unem bloc and the Hayastan alliance led by another former president, Robert Kocharian, control only 34 seats in the 107-member parliament. Political allies of the two ex-presidents have traded bitter recriminations over the last few months, calling into question their continued cooperation. Sarkisian continued the war of words in a speech delivered last week.