Tag: velvet revolution

Albanians and Armenians are different peoples with different histories. However, there is value in analyzing the conflict comparatively, both through engaging with scholarship on the region and, on a practical level, with Kosovo's experience.

A response to Gaidz Minassian’s article that explored the asphyxiating spirit of the “village” pitted against the “polity” argues that renouncing the village in favor of the polity may be redundant, since the village might be all that we have.

If those genuine activists who have genuine grievances want this government gone, then they must also get rid of the Kocharyans and Sargsyans from their ranks. Until this happens, the transition to mainstream legitimacy will be a Sisyphean endeavor.

Armenia's bid to pursue an independent and sovereign policy as a democracy was perceived to have a geopolitical context. The danger was in not seeing that reality, not evaluating it, and not recalculating domestic, foreign and security policy accordingly.

While Baku prepared for war, Armenia relied on overconfidence, willful ignorance and underestimated the enemy leading to its defeat in 2020. But Azerbaijan, intoxicated by its own victory, will also lose because of Aliyev’s strategic narcissism.

Does the Armenian diaspora have a role in the process of state building? Tigran Yegavian presents a brief history of Armenia-Diaspora relations starting with Armenia’s independence and offers some insights to rectify the absence of an effective relationship.

Twenty-six political parties and alliances of parties have registered with the Central Electoral Commission to take part in the upcoming snap parliamentary election in Armenia. Everything you need to know about them is in this essential primer.

Armenians may be wary of going to the polls in the upcoming snap parliamentary elections, but democracy remains the only option on the ballot.

Although Nikol Pashinyan and Donald Trump are different in demeanor and policy, both lean heavily on the populist playbook. Each is more comfortable fighting against resistant forces rather than governing through institutions.

Following the 2018 Velvet Revolution, a group of civic activists came together and formed the Citizen’s Decision Social Democratic Party. Gor Hakobyan, Secretary of the Executive Board of the party says their objective was to be part of the country’s political processes. He talks to EVN Report about the need to change the political culture in Armenia, especially in the current polarized political climate following the 2020 Artsakh War. Instead of finding solutions and devising strategies, the “two sides” are blaming one another, he says.

The demand for the Prime Minister’s resignation by the Army’s General Staff is a violation of the civilian-military doctrine that has served as an institutional and normative standard within Armenia’s state system and establishes a highly dangerous precedent.

During an extraordinary session, Armenia’s National Assembly initiated and unanimously approved a set of Constitutional amendments to address the crisis of political and institutional legitimacy of the Constitutional Court.

A comprehensive list of the most high-profile investigations launched against former officials and their associates following the 2018 Velvet Revolution.

The Armenian government has initiated a broad set of cases against the oligarchs and Robber Barons of the former regime composed of the upper echelon of the previous-pyramid hierarchy. Nerses Kopalyan looks at a number of high-profile cases.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov’s recent statement regarding a step-by-step approach to resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict reflects Russia’s centuries-old imperial instincts of using divide-and-conquer tactics on its periphery.

Christopher Atamian reviews two documentaries by two diasporan filmmakers about Armenia’s Velvet Revolution and writes that both deliver a somewhat hagiographic portrayal of Pashinyan and his supporters.

Are you interested in purchasing a home in Yerevan? If so, Harout Manougian offers some invaluable information and advice and more importantly, tips on how to avoid the inevitable pitfalls in an unregulated real estate market.

Transitional justice is a form of exceptional justice, since it is introduced for a specific period of time to deal with exceptional circumstances. This primer is based on Dr. Nerses Kopalyan’s White Paper, Transitional Justice Agenda for the Republic of Armenia and is a summary of the key points of transitional justice.

As an instrument of transitional justice, vetting is designed to “cleanse” state institutions that are tainted by systemic corruption, nepotism, and incompetence. Vetting of personnel is the first step toward the broader goal of institutional reform, writes Dr. Nerses Kopalyan.

In 2018, the Armenian people were swept up in a nationwide movement that would come to be known as the Velvet Revolution. Photojournalist Eric Grigorian took thousands of photos, documenting and capturing images of ordinary people who came together to achieve the extraordinary. Through his own words, Grigorian tells the story of the revolution and the moments in-between.

In the first of a series of articles, Dr. Lucyann Kerry proposes ways to reconfigure, reconnect and reconstruct the flow of resources, money/capital and human agency/interaction to revitalize the country based on successful models.

The fake news phenomenon is not uniquely Armenian. It’s a global challenge, but when the stakes are so high following the Velvet Revolution, journalists need to rediscover their mission and have an honest discourse about their role in the state of the media landscape.

Alen Shadunts writes that being democratic should not be a party ideology; democracy is a pre-existing bedrock condition, not an agenda for a particular government.

Armenia’s first post-Velvet Revolution parliament will hold its maiden session on January 14. Who are the men and women who will be serving the Armenian people as parliamentarians? EVN Report presents some interesting facts.

The director of the Armenian Election Study, Rafael Oganesyan takes a critical look at the recent snap parliamentary elections that took place in Armenia and utilizing fresh data explores the transformation of the Armenian voter.

This is a film about the Velvet Revolution, which took place in April-May of 2018 in Armenia from the perspective of Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Nikol Pashinyan, the man who led the nationwide movement that drastically changed the country's political landscape. The film portrays the personal side of Pashinyan’s political life and career.

After coming to power following the Velvet Revolution, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan made references on several occasions about direct democracy, saying that the highest power belongs directly to the people. What is direct democracy and can it be applied in Armenia?

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.

Despite the fact that more than 50 percent of Armenia’s population are women, only one party has entrusted the number one slot on its electoral list to a woman. Gohar Abrahamyan takes a look at which forces have the most women on their lists and why women’s presence alongside men is not the result of good will and remains problematic.

Was there just cause for the Velvet Revolution on substantive or procedural grounds? Dr. Simon Clarke applies a number of principles to the events that took place in Armenia earlier this year to determine whether the revolution was justified.

In the midst of a tremendous domestic transition, Armenia continues to navigate complicated global and regional relations and tensions, while also trying to maintain and strengthen relations with the European Union.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Amulsar gold mine, owned and operated by Lydian Armenia, is one of the most controversial projects in recent years in Armenia. Over the past weekend, activists from Yerevan and elsewhere traveled to the province of Vayots Dzor to raise awareness about the potential danger the mine poses to the environment.

In this second of a two-part series, Mikayel Zolyan looks at the external threats to the Armenian revolution. He writes that while security concerns continue to be real, the Armenian government and society need to make sure that the government system is well-functioning and ready to face external challenges.

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.

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.

A series of extraordinary events in early spring of 2018 that came to be known as the Velvet Revolution fundamentally changed Armenia’s political landscape. EVN Report’s Maria Titizian reflects on some of her personal experiences during those heady days.

In the first of a two-part series, Mikayel Zolyan looks as the internal threats facing Armenia’s new government following the Velvet Revolution - the continued resistance of the remains of the ancien régime and potential radicals within the revolutionary camp.

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.

The biographies of the new interim cabinet formed by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and other appointments.

As a participant and observer in every protest starting with the Karabakh Movement in 1988, Lusine Hovhannisyan writes that while Nikol Pashinyan gifted Armenians victory in 2018, the people now find themselves nervous about every decision, every appointment, every opinion being expressed.

Visual artist Ruben Malayan’s poster art that he created during the Velvet Revolution in Armenia is a fusion of his passion for calligraphy and the momentous events sweeping across the country.

Vahram Ter-Matevosyan writes about the political crisis that has gripped Armenia for three weeks now. He looks back at the special session of parliament that took place yesterday, which failed to elect a prime minister and explains why the Republicans would have served Armenia better if they had treated the matter with velvet gloves instead of an iron fist.

In this new piece, Mikayel Zolyan writes about the similarities and differences between the 1988 Karabakh Movement and the 2018 Velvet Revolution - what it meant for people then and now and lessons to be learned.

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.”

Photojournalist Eric Grigorian's series of portraits from Republic Square where thousands gathered in protest as Yerevan enters the seventh day of mass rallies, protests and innumerable acts of civil disobedience.

As Armenia's parliament elected Serzh Sargsyan as Armenia's prime minister today and as tens of thousands gathered in Republic Square in protest - here is a look back on the events of the last 48 hours through the lens of photojournalist Eric Grigorian.

While parliament prepares to elect the country’s new prime minister on April 17, thousands of Armenians poured out into the streets of the capital, exercising acts of civil disobedience. Clashes with security forces led to dozens of injuries. A recap of the day’s events.

Demonstrators led by Nikol Pashinyan, leader of the Civil Contract party, have shut down a major square in Yerevan, paralyzing the downtown core of the capital to protest former President Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy for the office of prime minister.