Free Democrats, a political party set up last year by several former members of Armenia’s main opposition group, is likely to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections in a bloc with another major opposition party, Heritage.

Alexander Arzumanyan, a senior member of the recently established party, confirmed at a press conference on Thursday that at present the two opposition parties are negotiating the possible formats of their cooperation ahead of the May vote. It is not clear yet what specific shape their alliance will take.

“We are negotiating with Heritage because we are ideologically close. That is probably why we do not have any problems in terms of ideology and very actively cooperate on a wide range of issues. We are confident that we will act together in preventing electoral fraud, sharing observers and proxies,” said Arzumanyan, who served as Armenia’s foreign minister in 1996-1998 and backed former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s presidential bid in 2008.

Heritage parliamentary faction head Stepan Safaryan confirmed ongoing negotiations with Free Democrats.

“They [Free Democrats] agree with us on many issues – parliamentary rule, all-party list elections… but everything will become much clearer when Free Democrats publish their program,” Safaryan told ArmeniaNow.

Free Democrats, meanwhile, say they will also seek to cooperate with other opposition forces in various formats. Though, Arzumanyan says forming a bloc with Ter-Petrosyan’s Armenian National Congress (ANC) would be like “entering the same river twice.”

A considerable number of current Free Democrats Party members are former representatives of the Armenian National Movement (ANM) – a core party in the ANC alliance. Seven of Ter-Petrosyan’s 11 campaign headquarters during the 2008 presidential election were headed by current Free Democrats members. Arzumanyan himself managed Ter-Petrosyan’s general campaign. He says he decided to leave the ANM in August 2011 after seeing the party’s liberal policy declining.

“Unfortunately, the ANM today has turned into a subsidiary that serves the ANC’s interests,” Arzumanyan said.

Free Democrats declare their support for a parliamentary form of government in Armenia.

“We don’t think it is expedient to have a candidate in the 2013 presidential election. If someone declares that he is coming to change the system of government, we will support him,” the party’s representative said.

Arzumanyan denied media reports alleging his trilateral talks with Heritage leader Raffi Hovannisian and Vartan Oskanian, another former foreign minister now increasingly critical of the government. Media speculated that alleged meeting focused on forming an alliance.

Arzumanyan acknowledged having met with Oskanian at a recent discussion at Civilitas, a think tank headed by the former foreign minister, but added: “Oskanian shares the responsibility for March 1 [2008 deadly suppression of opposition protests].”