YEREVAN. – Prior to the [snap parliamentary] elections [on June 20], the situation of the pre-election power struggle will intensify so much that we can almost predict that we are on the verge of a civil war. Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (BAP) and head of its parliamentary faction, said this at the BAP’s press conference Sunday.

“Yesterday we were following the assembly of the presentation of the ruling party’s program, where some angry people were criticizing the formation of a government of national accord, the agenda of solidarity, being  united, joint against the enemy of all of us. And in this sense, I’m just surprised. Ok, if solidarity is rejected, what is its alternative? Its alternative is civil war, clashes. The dose of hatred [in Armenia] will rise so much that people will be brought into conflict,” he said.

Marukyan stressed that if the election campaign of the ruling party and the former authorities continues in this spirit, it will not be possible to avoid clashes.

According to him, the political arena in Armenia is arranged in such a way that the BAP is the political force that has no enemies. “We [the BAP] will impose internal political peace on these irreconcilable parties because they will not find common ground with each other, they will not spare any resources to destroy each other; as a result, they will destroy all of us. In fact, we have witnessed such a battle,” Edmon Marukyan added.