For years, Robert Kocharyan’s team has tried to strengthen its position in the opposition field by relying on the numbers of “Gallup” polls. Kocharyan’s political allies constantly emphasized that they were supposedly the leaders in these surveys and that public support was entirely on their side. However, today reality shows a different picture.
In the latest published Gallup poll results, for the first time it became clear that Samvel Karapetyan’s newly formed political force has gained a higher rating than Kocharyan himself. This not only undermines Kocharyan’s team’s longstanding claims but also reveals a trend toward new consolidation within the opposition, where Kocharyan’s place is shrinking day by day.
Kocharyan’s team has often sought to dominate the opposition not with ideas or programs, but through backstage struggles. They created divisions among opposition forces, slandered and targeted Serzh Sargsyan and his circle, believing this would make them the only “legitimate” opposition. But the facts show otherwise: the more Kocharyan’s team engages in internal intrigues, the more their public support declines, approaching zero.
Today, the rise of Samvel Karapetyan’s movement demonstrates that society is ready to support new faces and new approaches, while Kocharyan’s “old rules of the game” no longer work. If his team continues with the same politics — divisions, internal schemes, and silence conditioned by their own past — they will inevitably be pushed out of the opposition field.
Ultimately, society no longer believes in either number manipulations or the self-assertion attempts of old politicians. It is time to acknowledge that political reality has changed, and in the opposition, places are secured not by conspiracies but by ideas and public trust.
Opinion Column by Ani Terteryan