With the arrest of Armen Ashotyan Armenia makes one more step towards establishment of democratic authoritarianism

On June 16, the Anticorruption Court gave an arrest warrant of 2 months to the one of the most influential members of opposition, to the Deputy Chair of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Mr. Armen Ashotyan.

In the past, Mr. Ashotyan was the Minister of Education and Science. Before 2018, he was the Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the Parliament of the Republic of Armenia.

As the Deputy Head of the RPA Mr. Ashotyan coordinates foreign policy development of the party, relations with foreign party members and experts.

In the Armenian political life Mr. Ashotyan positioned himself as an harsh critic to the policy adopted by the ruling party regarding the regulation of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Ashotyan criticizes not simply with opposition political rhetoric, but his activities builds around clear analytical apparatus based on the principle of revealing cause and effect relationships between events now and in the past, as he masters all the details of and historical developments around the conflict resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh.

As the Armenian expert community states, this trait made Mr. Ashotyan dangerous to the ruling party, specifically to Nikol Pashinyan, who is in office. This is because the most prominent opposition party’s deputy is the toughest and the most harsh critic towards the ruling parties (Nikol Pashinyan) stance on the Nagorno Karabakh conflict resolution.

By arresting Mr. Ashotyan with totally fabricated accusations, Pashinyan showcases the huge gap between reality and his statements on democracy in Armenia.

-Free speech is being silenced in Armenia.

-Real opposition members are politicly prosecuted and being neutralized with criminal methods.

-In Armenia a showcase democracy is in action. And each time Nikol Pashinyan acts against democracy, one peace of this showcase is being broken.

To this end, the arrest of Mr Ashotyan is a big step backwards from real democracy, and exhibits those rough and violent methods that this government (Nikol Pashinyan) puts into action to neutralize its critics and opponents.

In Armenia, as the system of check and balances, vital to democracy, is not functioning, the real opposition takes that very role.
By silencing and neutralizing opponents and critics the acting ruling party becomes more absolute and lawless. By doing so, it deprives the society of all opportunities for political control and accountability.

With the arrest of Mr. Ashotyan Armenia makes one more step towards establishment of democratic authoritarianism.