Armenia’s opposition has held a hearing in defence of the inclusion of the Declaration of Independence in Armenia’s constitution, with opposition figures insulting supporters and members of the ruling party.

The opposition Armenia Alliance faction held the hearing on Thursday to discuss the draft statement regarding the inviolable relevance of Armenia's Declaration of Independence.

The hearing took place against the backdrop of continued statements from Azerbaijan that the inclusion of the declaration in the Armenian constitution equates to territorial claims. Azerbaijan has called these claims the ‘major obstacle’ in concluding a peace treaty. 

Armenia’s constitution references the declaration in its preamble. The declaration itself includes a joint decision by the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Karabakh Council to ‘reunify the Armenian SSR and the Mountainous Region of Karabakh’.

The ruling Civil Contract party did not take part in the hearing, but shared their outrage online following a speech by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, the leader of the Holy Struggle movement.

‘I am disturbed by the labelling and guilt of those who hand over the country to be tattooed by the Civil Contract party on the foreheads of the 680,000 Armenians who chose Civil Contract’, Galstanyan said.

He also admitted that while at this stage they did not succeed in terms of bringing a change in government, the struggle would continue because it was about ‘ultimately stopping this dishonourable process and restoring our statehood’.

Artur Hovhannisyan, the secretary of the ruling party, called Galstanyan an 'underworld-related priest in mantle’ and said that it would be better for him to  ‘finally change his mantle to the uniform of a foreign special service.’

The ruling party has continually alleged that the opposition movement has ties to foreign countries, with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stating in May that the movement was supported by ‘drug lords living in foreign countries, criminals who, according to my information, were recruited by foreign special services’.

Another opposition activist, Rubik Hakobyan, was removed from parliament after calling Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyen ‘some prostitute with a business card’. 

He referred to an incident in April 2023 when Simonyan spat at a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) in central Yerevan after the activist called him a ‘traitor’.

During his speech, Hakobyan also said they ‘must expel the authorities at any cost’ to restore the constitutional order and preserve ‘all our rights’, defining at any cost to mean ‘rebelling, forming death squads, and driving them away.’

In response, Simonyan posted on Telegram insulting Hakobyan, calling him ‘an old hole used many times by the former authorities’.

Hakobyan was a former MP firstly in the ARF, then in the Heritage party. 

Referring to Galstanyan’s statements, Simonyan noted that Galstanyan was trying to label people, so that they ‘don’t remember the stigma of Serzh [Sargsyan] stamped on his forehead’.

Simonyan was presumably referring to Galstanyan’s meeting with former Armenian Presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan in September prior to resuming his protests. Moreover, Sargsyan’s Republican party previously expressed its support to the movement as it emerged.

​​The anti-government opposition movement resumed its protests in October, attracting considerably fewer people compared to the unprecedented numbers who attended  their first rallies in Yerevan in May.