Tag: op-ed

The early parliamentary election was officially triggered on May 10, 2021. Harout Manougian looks at the main possible scenarios for the outcome of the election, based on party rankings from recent poll results.

Three years ago today, Serzh Sargsyan resigned as Prime Minister. When it comes to unjustified constitutional amendments and rigged referendums, Armenian history should never repeat itself.

A Military Trophy Park-Museum dedicated to Azerbaijan’s military victory over Artsakh was inaugurated in Baku. It is a gruesome display that includes hundreds of helmets of Armenian soldiers killed in battle and grossly exaggerated life-size figures of dead and dying captives.

Armenia’s Government must quickly shape a coherent and powerful vision of what it wants to gain from the transport talks. If they get it wrong, the country is at risk of being outmaneuvered by Azerbaijan and taken advantage of by Russia.

Instead of playing semantics, PM Nikol Pashinyan should have taken responsibility for the war's disastrous outcome and resigned. A golden opportunity to push the democratic movement forward was squandered.

This opinion piece argues that Armenia can pursue a strategy that can lead to the defense of democracy with respect to the right to self-determination of peoples by aligning itself with other stateless nations.

On this day of independence, the Armenian people celebrate their defiance of history and injustice. Every September 21, Armenians celebrate their will-to-power, their indestructible will to Struggle.

For over a century, almost every generation has experienced a disruption of continuity, security and safety, resulting in a cycle of upheaval, writes Maria Titizian.

It is hard to have two countries to love differently but with equal vulnerability, writes Roubina Margossian as she reflects on the catastrophic explosion at the Port of Beirut.

Armenia’s Security Council recently introduced a new National Security Strategy after a 13-year hiatus. Vahram Ter-Matevosyan writes that while it is an important milestone and invested efforts are praiseworthy, the document, with a few exceptions, is inward-looking and unambitious.

This year, there are no tourists, no airport pickups or tearful goodbyes, no late night phone calls or text messages asking where to find the best khorovats, writes Maria Titizian.

In Armenia, discussing mental health is too often associated with a sense of shame; however, according to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, mental health services should be an integral component of all government responses to COVID-19.

I was so privileged that I had never reflected on my privilege before, writes Harout Manougian, in lieu of this week’s “It Has To Be Said” editorial.

If you don’t believe that there is a pandemic, if you think it’s a hoax, if you refuse to follow simple safety rules then maybe when you need help, your luck will run out.

Labeling people we disagree with can have profound effects, it can also shut down any kind of intellectual debate, leading to greater polarization.

In this week’s “It Has To Be Said” editorial, Maria Titizian looks at how the glorification of aggressive male behavior and dominance in Armenian society has found its way into the corridors of parliament and elsewhere.

While many people are following regulations of social distancing and self-isolation, other processes continue unabated, creating a new normal.

The lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic has ripped the domestic gender gap wide open, laying bare the deep inequity that exists in most families.

In this week’s editorial, Maria Titizian writes that the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the vulnerability of workers in Armenia.

As the world grapples with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the time will come when governments will have to implement a coordinated national response program, including Armenia.

This week’s “It Has To Be Said” editorial looks at the importance of social responsibility amid a pandemic that has rattled almost every country on the planet.

In this week’s “It Has To Be Said” editorial, Maria Titizian reflects on the latest domestic violence case in Armenia that left a woman dead and her 13-year-old daughter fighting for her life.

The divisive “black or white” tone of the political campaign is not lending itself to the very ideals that the Velvet Revolution promised - pluralism, choices, diversity and freedom. On Election Day, people should vote according to their conscience and preferences, not out of pressure to be with the “right” crowd.

Dr. Nerses Kopalyan provides an in-depth analysis of the parties and coalition of parties that are running for the Dec. 9 snap parliamentary elections. Of the 11 political forces preparing for the campaign, Kopalyan writes, only six are competitive and have the capacity to influence and effect the policy discourse during the campaign.

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.

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.

Dr. Nerses Kopalyan writes that the municipal election was not about Yerevan, the Council of Elders, or the Mayor: it was about reifying Pashinyan’s dominance of the Armenian political universe.

After his many years working in Brussels and trying to counter the effects of Azerbaijan’s Caviar Diplomacy, Bedo Demirdjian writes about his anger and frustration at how many European politicians received money from Azerbaijani authorities in a scheme being dubbed the Azerbaijani Laundromat.

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.

Following a series of extraordinary events in Armenia that has come to be coined as the “Velvet Revolution,” it is now time to put emotions aside and begin the process of evaluating those events objectively and by applying several academic disciplines, writes Vahram Ter-Matevosyan.

A native of Bourj Hammoud bids farewell to her hometown following an attack on writer Raffi Doudaklian in what appears to have been an attempt to silence his words. In this deeply personal essay, Roubina Margossian reflects on her complicated relationship with the town.

Since the beginning of the year, decisions to bar reporters from government sessions and Yerevan City Council meetings along with threats to a reporter are raising concerns of a slow but steady suppression of the media.

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.

How we treat the most vulnerable in our society is a reflection of ourselves. December 10 is Human Rights Day – the day the UN General Assembly, in 1948, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this essay, Maria Titizian writes about dignity and how certain politicians view the condition of Armenia's poverty-stricken.

Armenia’s parliament is set to discuss a bill on domestic violence that was significantly watered down after pressure from conservative groups and the ruling Republican Party. In this opinion piece, Maria Titizian ponders how a nation that reveres mothers and the traditional Armenian family can be divided on the necessity for such a law.

At the height of the Erebuni siege last year by the Daredevils of Sassoun, a group of journalists were allowed into the compound. "Misplaced Fear" is a journalistic and a photographic essay by Roubina Margossian, who was working for CivilNet at the time and provides an inside view of the events that day and also reflects on developments of the past year.

Why did Armenia not take more proactive measures when it knew that Moscow was actively developing its military-political dialogue with Baku? In this analysis, Areg Galstyan looks at the complex relationships in the South Caucasus and policies that Russia implements with both Armenia and Azerbaijan.