Speaking at an event marking the 35th anniversary of the founding of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), party chairman and former President Serzh Sargsyan highlighted that the party has endured trials both in power and in opposition, despite all pressures it has faced.

Addressing the frequent accusation that the RPA helped bring Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to power in 2018, Sargsyan said he had previously remarked at a party congress that no one was forced to go and "kiss the loudest braying donkey in the herd"—a metaphor he used to describe those who supported Pashinyan.

"That phrase became somewhat emblematic of them. And now, considering recent developments, I’ll extend the thought: ‘Don’t tie the donkey you kissed to our door.’ Everyone is responsible for the donkey they kissed," he stated.

Sargsyan added that those making such accusations are the very people who once protested against him or secretly supported the rallies. In his view, the 2018 events were either a mistake or a calculated move by different individuals.

"Time and again, they throw out the ‘you brought Nikol’ narrative to whitewash their own recent past... Those who say such things are, at the very least, not honest. Since 2018, those Soros-linked and like-minded entities have turned blind and deaf, as if they vanished underground. To them I say this: it takes great courage to admit and correct one's own mistake. Participating eagerly in the 2018 ouster or remaining totally indifferent makes you complicit in everything that happened after."

He stressed the difficulty of admitting one’s role in enabling a power grab, saying it’s much easier to blame others. "So why not choose the easy path?" he asked rhetorically.

Sargsyan also lamented that former allies who failed to gain power themselves have now joined in blaming the RPA. He recalled standing side-by-side in the streets with some of these critics against the “state-destroying rulers of Armenia,” stressing that their focus then was saving the nation rather than nursing personal grievances.

"And yet, some of these people still go on rejecting Serzh, still throwing stones at the RPA. In today’s context, this is no longer political opposition but, as Armen Ashotyan would say, a psychological disorder—pathology."

He referred to attempts to question his past remarks about the 2018 events, particularly his assertion that he was defeated not by local rivals, but by far greater forces. Sargsyan reaffirmed that the loss was collective and national.

"We lost to forces with calculated regional agendas. They couldn’t tolerate the red lines we had drawn around our national interests. They found in Armenia treacherous elements with no red lines, ready to sacrifice anything for power and money—populists who clouded minds and now stop at nothing to fulfill their masters’ demands."

Sargsyan also addressed the myth that the decision to join the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was made overnight.

"From day one, we’ve been attacked from all sides simply for pursuing actions based on our national interests. We didn’t cave to pressures to choose one integration model at the expense of another. The claim about a 'one-night decision' is fiction—they’ve told it so often they’ve started to believe it. In reality, our difficult yet productive negotiations with both the EAEU and the EU led to membership in the former and the signing of the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement with the latter. That agreement encapsulated our full cooperation agenda and mutual interests."

He concluded by noting that in early 2018, at the Munich Security Conference, the same countries later critical of Armenia had held it up as a rare example of successful negotiation under complex conditions.