Daron Acemoglu calls on Armenian people to be actively involved in control of political processes

World-renowned economist Daron Acemoglu, who agreed to assist Armenia in developing its economy, says the youth in Armenia must turn its engagement in politics into a positive trend of changes.

“I’m happy to share my knowledge as it’s an exciting time, and at least I can do that. It’s the Armenian people who should make a step, rather than the prime minister, the MPs or judges, as well as neither me nor the Diaspora. The Armenian people, youth, who have been silent for a long time, must be engaged in politics, they should find a way to keep their participation in this and turn it into a positive trend of change. But this doesn’t mean that people should hold protests every day. They must be involved in, should not allow the repetition of mistakes made in the past two-three decades”, the economist said vie live video at the discussion titled ‘Armenia Tomorrow: Citizen Diplomacy at Work’ organized by the Institute of Armenian Studies of the University of Southern California.

Daron Acemoglu added that the citizens should be vigilant, find the right way to control vie media and civil society structures in order to be assured that the new leadership is not the previous one, they are the continuation of the positive change.

The economist said now the real time is for changes, given the great wave of excitement among the society. “This is really a perfect opportunity of preconditions for us to move forward. At the moment it is important to create a system where there is an equal game field, there are promoting factors, opportunities and people are encouraged to effectively participate in the country’s social and economic life”, the ethnic Armenian economist said.

Daron Acemoglu highlighted the necessity to introduce new institutional elements so that the new system in its turn will not bring persons and groups who will become beneficiaries of corruption.