Pashinyan Says He Consulted Nobody
They asked who he consulted. He said: nobody. I made my own decision.
In this exchange, Harut Sassounian describes Pashinyan as governing like an all-powerful, one-man rule. His anchor is a specific moment: Sassounian says that when Pashinyan was asked in parliament who he had consulted on a decision, he answered that he consulted nobody and made his own decision. For Sassounian, that admission captures everything wrong with how the country is run.
Sassounian is careful to separate two things. He says he does not mind that no leader knows everything, because nobody does. What troubles him is the absence of wise advisors Pashinyan will actually listen to, and the pattern of interfering in the courts, the parliament, the presidency, and the constitutional court. Asbed chimes in with a short, sharp line, and the back-and-forth keeps the clip lively rather than a monologue.
The moment is clip-worthy because it reduces a sprawling critique into one quotable claim about concentrated power. It connects directly to the episode’s larger argument that the government has blurred the lines between institutions, from the Church dispute to the courts that accepted a lawsuit against the Catholicos. For audiences following Armenian politics and the Civil Contract government, this is a tight, concrete illustration of the one-man-rule charge, delivered by a community leader who stresses throughout that he tries to be fair. The specificity of the parliamentary exchange gives the accusation more weight than a vague complaint would, and the exchange between guest and host makes it easy to drop into a short vertical video.
Transcript
Harut Sassounian: to take action. And because he, not only the Catholicos, on all issues, he proudly mentioned in the Parliament, when he said, I made a decision on some issue, they asked him, who did you consult? He said, nobody. I made my own decision. So he's like all-powerful, one-man rule. He doesn't,
Asbed Bedrossian: He's a know-it-all.
Harut Sassounian: he doesn't, but he thinks he is. And then he doesn't ask for any i don't mind if he doesn't know everything nobody knows everything but at least you have advisors uh wise advisors that you listen to he doesn't have wise advisors and if something somebody by mistake says something intelligent he ignores it so he probably told the parliament i consulted nobody i made my own decision which is very bad he he
Hovik Manucharyan: Yeah.
Harut Sassounian: in every decision of every kind whether legal illegal you know he interferes in the court in the parliament, what the president decides, what the constitutional court decides, what anybody decides. So it's a one-man show.
Hovik Manucharyan: But can I just respond to that?