Tag: political

With snap parliamentary elections just a month away, there is a historic opportunity to set the foundations for a democratic state. While fair and free elections are critically important, they are only a first step. Armenia’s democratization must include making human rights the cornerstone and main guiding framework for policy making.

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.

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.

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.

A sharp departure from the confinements of Soviet era filmmakers where any production had to be commissioned by the state and would remain under strict supervision, a 2003 law on mass media, forbids censorship in the Republic of Armenia. But in post-Soviet Armenia censorship has time and again found ways of meddling with cinema.

In this first piece for EVN Report, Vicken Cheterian examines how Armenia-Diaspora relations will be impacted by dramatic changes in the country’s political landscape following the “Velvet Revolution” and whether it will be possible to revolutionize those relations.