“It's too early to talk about it because there's still a lot of time and a lot may change,” Tsarukian told his Kentron TV channel in an interview aired late on Thursday. “But if I participate, I will participate with a program called ‘Offer to Armenia.’”
“I have no ambitions for the position of prime minister,” he said. “I am ready to organize, to represent our Armenians around the world, Armenians of the Diaspora, local Armenians, to listen to the necessary advice from them, to participate in programs, to organize.”
Tsarukian is the founding leader of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) that had the second largest group in the country’s former parliament. It challenged Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and demanded his resignation even before the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Tsarukian was charged with vote buying and arrested in September 2020 just days before the outbreak of the war. The BHK leader, who rejected the accusations as politically motivated, was freed on bail one month later.
Like other opposition groups, the BHK blamed Pashinian for Armenia’s defeat in the six-week war and tried to topple him. It failed to win any parliament seats in snap general elections held in June 2021. Tsarukian has kept a low profile since then.
In late 2023, the Armenian authorities moved to confiscate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets belonging to him and his family. They invoked a controversial law that allows them to seize money, properties and companies deemed to have been acquired illegally.
In his latest televised remarks, the 68-year-old tycoon criticized the state of affairs in Armenia but stopped short of explicitly blaming Pashinian for them.