World-renowned rock musician, System of a Down lead vocalist Serj Tankian has given an interview to the Vulture website, during which he touched upon various issues, including his musical and social activities.
Serj Tankian also spoke about Armenia’s domestic political situation. He noted that since the 10 November ceasefire, Armenians have been mourning not only the loss of fallen young men, but also of a 2,500-year-old historic homeland, which was seized “by dictatorships that attacked with impunity, using disinformation alongside advanced weaponry.”
“This has obviously created instability in Armenia and provoked great anger toward Nikol Pashinyan’s current government. He was the revolutionary leader who began to govern after the 2018 velvet revolution, which was a peak moment for Armenia’s history. Now it is an incredibly bad moment for our history. The opposition in the streets is made up of various parties, many of which are not even represented in parliament. Most of them are connected to the old authorities and are trying to use the capitulation or the defeat in the war to return to power,” he observed.
The rock musician sees the solution to the current situation in early elections.
“The solution to the current situation is to move forward in a democratic, constitutional manner, that is, early parliamentary elections, which the current government was talking about at some point. The opposition was against it because it feared that even in the case of new elections, they would not receive as much support from the people as the current authorities that lost the war,” Tankian noted.
Serj Tankian stressed that the only way now is democracy, and neither the army nor the opposition should take over leadership. According to Tankian, it is necessary to hold elections sooner than the mandate of the current parliament expires.
