Revolution took place in Armenia, but complete change of power has not taken place yet, says Pashinyan
Acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan talked about the deep meaning and political significance of the events which took place in Armenia in recent months during today’s session in the Parliament.
The acting PM commented on whether what had happened in Armenia was a revolution or just a change of power. “It’s definite for me that a revolution took place in Armenia, since a real change of the formation of the society took place, and the essence of that change is that before April 2018 the criminal, economic and political elite, which the whole power belonged to, was a dominant political factor, decisive force in Armenia. But after the revolution that dominant political factor, the decisive force became the people who managed to force that political and economic elite to elect the candidate preferred by them [the people] as Prime Minister of Armenia and recognize the people’s power”, Pashinyan said.
The acting PM added that this topic is urgent in a sense that there are still politicians and analysts who announce and insist that a change of power, rather than a revolution, has just taken place in Armenia. “But the truth is quite the contrary: a revolution took place in Armenia, but change of power has not taken place yet, in other words, a complete change of power has not taken place. Yes, people’s power is established in Armenia, people’s government is established in Armenia, but the people and the democratic government still do not have the tool to completely implement their ideas, since the public administration system operates if not completely, but at least with a major part with the old logic and traditions, as well as with the secret hope for return to the old system”, he said.
Pashinyan emphasized that since his election as PM in May 2018, criminal cases have launched against dozens of officials in Armenia on charges of abuse, bribe and embezzlement. “I don’t mean the cases which were filed since May 8 or over the events that happened before April-May. I am talking about the events which happened after the revolution, after my election as PM. I couldn’t understand how after April-May any official in Armenia could think of taking bribes, making embezzlement”, the acting PM said, adding that signals are sent to the old system that what had happened in Armenia has a prospect of several months.
“In other words, those people, who continue working with the old logic, must have a source of inspiration. And therefore that source of inspiration is the former parliamentary majority and the old system. Moreover, that inspiration have been both by internal channels and publicly. The representatives of the Republican Party have regularly publicly announced that there are no preconditions for holding snap parliamentary elections in Armenia, that the parliamentary elections in Armenia will take place in 2022”, Pashinyan said, adding that all these has been done for keeping the former corrupted public administration system in Armenia, making the atmosphere in Armenia nervous, obstructing the economic and investment environment as much as possible, creating obstacles for the current government and waiting for the moment to achieve revenge.
He said a real attempt to achieve revenge has taken place before October 23. “The first one was the attempt to make a consolidation over Robert Kocharyan [2nd President of Armenia], which, however, failed thanks to the definite rejection by the people as the main political factor. The second attempt was what happened in the Parliament on October 2 when such changes were being made in the Parliament’s Rules of Procedure by the parliamentary majority so that the people’s factor will reach to zero in the context of ongoing political processes.
But within just 2 hours nearly 80.000 citizens of Armenia blocked the Parliament’s building and showed that all attempts to rule out the people’s political factor will meet large national resistance. The third attempt to achieve revenge was what happened in the Parliament this Monday, when the Republican Party boycotted and failed to adopt the Electoral Code reforms. This is being done for the upcoming snap parliamentary elections to be held with the current Electoral Code, in other words, with a ranked-voting system, since they suddenly hoped that this system may give a chance to them to reach revenge in the upcoming elections with the ranked-voting system”, Pashinyan said.
