Former defense minister Seyran Ohanian will participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia in order to obtain a “regime change,” an opposition leader said on Friday.

Victor Dallakian, who was a senior official until recently, insisted that Ohanian and his party called the Third Republic are ready to form an electoral alliance that could also include other opposition groups.

“Our cooperation is not continuing,” Dallakian told reporters. “Our cooperation is increasingly deep and this has to do with the fact that the evaluations of our party and Seyran Ohanian of the current situation of the country and ways to get out are identical.

“We are of the opinion that it is possible to achieve a peaceful change of regime in our country following the parliamentary elections in a unified and consolidated way,” he said.

Ohanian announced his decision to actively participate in the elections of April 2017 on Monday, just over two months after being thanked for his position as defense minister during a government reshuffle initiated by President Serge Sarkissian. He said he will endeavor to bring about political and economic changes in the country, but has not named political allies.

Ohanian was appointed Minister of Defense shortly after Sarkisian became president in 2008. He was the chief general of the Armenian Army until then.

“Seyran Ohanian is not responsible for this situation in Armenia,” Dallakian said after chairing a pre-election conference of his party. “Only one person is responsible for this situation in Armenia and this person is President Serge Sarkisian.”

Dallakian launched stern attacks against Sarkissian immediately after resigning in early October as vice president of the presidential staff responsible for relations with the Armenian Parliament. He has held this position since 2012.

Dallakian, who was an opposition MP in the early and mid-2000s, downplayed the importance of this work, noting that he only performed “symbolic functions” in the Sarkisian staff.

In a speech at the party congress, Dallakian criticized the president hard and said that opposition forces should tighten the ranks to prevent the victory of the Republican Party in power in the upcoming elections. He said the Armenian authorities will try to stuff the ballots and thus risk “post-electoral” revolutionary cataclysms.

Ohanian was also courted by Vartan Oskanian, a former foreign minister very critical of the current government. Oskanian expressed hope earlier this month that the former head of defense will team up with his Consolidation party in June.