Nerses Kopalyan examines and debunks the arguments that the arrest and detention of Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan is politically motivated and that the basis of the arrest lacks cogent and substantive legal foundations. Kocharyan has been charged with “overthrowing constitutional order” regarding the events of March 1, 2008 that left ten people dead.

Nerses Kopalyan writes that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s declaration of war against the entrenched powers of the previous system is not simply a singular attack against corruption, but rather a broad multi-pronged strategy that envisions an ideational restructuring of Armenia’s political culture.

Policies of previous administrations were not shaped by ideology, but rather, by a drive to consolidate illegitimate power through patronalistic politics. Nerses Kopalyan argues that the political ideology of Nikol Pahsinyan’s new government is aggressive centrism.

Dr. Nerses Kopalyan applies two conceptual frameworks from political science - prospect theory and historical institutionalism - to understand how Serzh Sargsyan’s Administration collapsed in the face of an unprecedented popular uprising in Armenia.

Armenia is facing its greatest challenge since independence. Nikol Pashinyan’s Velvet Revolution has left the ruling Republican Party facing a crisis of legitimacy. Nerses Kopalyan writes, “Pashinyan is not seeking to usurp the Constitutional legitimacy of Parliament, but rather, force the majority in Parliament to conform to the will of the popular movement.”

Today, former president Serzh Sargsyan became Armenia's new prime minister. Dr. Nerses Kopalyan outlines Sargsyan's achievements over the ten years as president. He writes: "The most vital complexity of Sargsyan becoming PM is that it not only reinforces, but also justifies the de-moralization of the Armenian citizen."

Is corruption inherent to the post-Soviet Armenian political culture, and if so, does this make the political culture of Armenia incompatible with democratic values? Dr. Nerses Kopalyan examines how conflictual matters that should be resolved in the public sphere are almost always resolved within the cultural rules of the private sphere.

Dr. Nerses Kopalyan takes a look at the role some of the most powerful Diasporan organizations have played in “reinforcing and indirectly legitimating the country’s existing political system” and draws parallels between the relationship of Armenia’s ruling administrations and their politics of co-opting the powers of the Diaspora.