Armenia Enters Uncharted Course of Democracy

In drafting the current constitution, Serzh Sargsyan had fashioned the office of the super prime minister to shape his ambitions, even stripping most powers of the president.

Pashinyan realizes that some of those powers have to be returned to the office of the president. And also, the security apparatus, which are under the command of the prime minister, need to work independently.

The judges and the entire judicial system had always been dependent on the presidential office. Verdicts were issued at the whim of the power center. If the role of the judiciary should be to hold the balance between the legislative and the executive branches, there has to be an independent judiciary. If in the past, the calls were emanating from the power center in the office of the president to the courts, recent leaks from the security apparatus reveal the calls now are coming in reverse order with the same effect and result.

The structure of the forthcoming government, which will put in place the changes, is extremely important.

During the French Revolution, guillotine executions had become public entertainment. Similarly, high profile arrests in Armenia, such as that of oligarch Gen. Manvel Grigoryan, satisfy the public demand for the former gluttons filling their pockets to face consequences in the wake of the Velvet Revolution.

“I’m not sure how educated the public has been about anti-corruption; Armenians mostly see corruption as oligarchs plundering the country,” said Anahit Shirinyan, a Chatham House Academy fellow specializing in Armenian politics.

The fight against corruption is not a goal in itself; it has to lead towards the formation of a fairer society. Pashinyan has been advocating for non-violent change in an atmosphere of love and brotherhood. That policy has served him well in getting rid of a corrupt regime. But the task of reconstruction is more challenging, mostly because the public sentiment has not settled yet. Social media, which supports Pashinyan, is full of obscene and lewd statements aimed at detractors, from which the prime minister must disassociate himself. He has already tried to tame that beast, to no avail.

“The rhetoric during the transition of power was entirely against the old regime,” wrote Alexander Iskandaryan, the director of the Caucasus Institute. “That was smart. The old regime thought they could survive on bribes and apathy, but you can’t maintain that forever. But neither does high popularity. The legitimacy it brings is useful only if you use it for something.”

At this point, the Velvet Revolution is on its way towards its final victory, which is “using it for something.”

Once the elections are held, without bribes and with cohesion, it will be the time for implementing reforms and those reforms should not only prove to be cosmetic, playing around the constitution, but fundamental, which envision the formation of true and serious political parties, emulating Western democracies. Thus far, all three presidents of Armenia, beginning with Levon Ter-Petrosian, have fought traditional political parties for having operated in the diaspora yet always focused on a free Armenia.

All new political parties in Armenia have been formed around personalities or around their pocketbooks, and that is why they have fallen like a house of cards. There is no ideological body that can hold them together. The diaspora may contribute in investments but also in political experience.

Armenia needs to harness all its resources domestically and from around the world to make this time its march towards a democratic future a success.