Tag: 2018

Following the Velvet Revolution, Armenian society is faced with the challenge of reassessing its old values and creating a new value system and group identity, leaving the space open for manipulation and propaganda. Anna Pambukhchyan looks at the values and ideas often propagated as opinion-making mechanisms.

Following the Velvet Revolution and the ensuing political instability, it seems residents in Armenia will be heading to the polls in snap parliamentary elections in December. The issue of the formation of a constructive political opposition has been part of the public discourse over the past several months.

With snap parliamentary elections around the corner and if all indicators hold true, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civic Contract party remains poised to sweep the vote. The question that the prime minister will have to consider is whether he wants to rule or govern.

Departing U.S. Ambassador Richard M. Mills in an exclusive interview with EVN Report speaks candidly about his three and a half years in Armenia, the Velvet Revolution, Artsakh, the region and more.

Professor Don Fuller examines how post-Soviet states have had difficulty in breaking normative behavior originating in Soviet times and how corruption is manifested in anti-democratic decision-making practices. He writes that Armenia’s new revolutionary government will be watched for evidence of competent innovation and justice.

The dramatic events of October 2, highlights the fundamental political paradox in Armenia – a Prime Minister with no parliamentary majority governs the executive branch in a parliamentary republic – and we experienced both sides “flexing their muscles” to demonstrate their respective powers, Raffi Kassarjian writes.

First Deputy Prime Minister Ararat Mirzoyan sat down with EVN Report to talk about the challenges facing the new government as they prepare, among other things, to introduce reforms to the Electoral Code, make amendments to the Constitution to pave the way to snap elections and the potential introduction of transitional justice to deal with the sheer volume of corruption cases.

Norik Gasparyan, a journalist from Tbilisi writes about the differences and similarities of two revolutions that took place 15 years apart in the South Caucasus: the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the Velvet Revolution in Armenia.

Education has the immense power to impact industries and the economy. Artashes Vardanyan writes about the need to transform the educational system to meet the needs of one particularly promising sector of Armenia's economy, the High-Tech industry.

What is it like to find yourself on a heavily militarized contact line? How does it feel to see an adversary, a mere 400 meters away, who was the reason you became a refugee? Anna Astvatsaturian Turcotte, a refugee from Baku, writes about her emotional journey to the line and back.