Political crisis deepens in Armenia

By Azernews

By Ofeliya Afandiyeva

The 2018 Armenian Revolution, also known as Velvet Revolution, failed to solve deep political crisis in the country. Accusing ex-president Serj Sargsyan in grasp of government, now, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has almost inevitably become the main target for widespread critics, especially by the Republican Party of Armenia. In fact, after Sargsyan’s resignation, capture of this post by Pashinyan, was only a shift of power between rivals, but not change of the essence of government.

Now Armenia is experiencing a period when the authority in the truest sense of the word is trampling the law, impairing function of the moral and political institutions of the country, which was merged for years by the Republican Party of Armenia.

Delving into a reality of ongoing struggle between mentioned rivals, there is a rational argument, which explains performance by political figures. So, establishing in 1990, the Republican Party of Armenia emerged as a national-conservative party, which was the first political party in independent Armenia. Actually, its ideology is based on extremely exaggerated “eternity of Armenia nation”, which propagates its existence by all means.

Distinct from the previous party, the Civil Contract Party has no definite ideology. “There are no clear lines between political ideologies anymore in the 21st century, those lines disappeared,” Nikol Pashinyan, leader of the Party, states.

Surely, this statement is crystal evidence between objective of two parties, which the first one cannot accept “lack of ideology” being so conservative.

Karine Achemyan, the Chair of Woman Council of the Republican Party of Armenia, shared her concerns about the about violations in the legal plane in Armenia.

In an interview with Voice of Armenia she noted that the government yet keen to accelerate ratification of the Istanbul Convention that the Republican Party of Armenia signed in January 2018.

The Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (also known as the Istanbul Convention) is a Council of Europe convention, which was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, in Istanbul, Turkey. The convention aims at prevention of violence, victim protection and "to end with the impunity of perpetrators". As of March 2019, it has been signed by 46 countries and the European Union.  The key point is that the document also contains provisions forbidding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and specifies that gender is a social construct rather than a biological fact.

The Convention caused a nationwide debate, with many conservative voices complaining that attempts to regulate domestic violence represent an imposition of foreign values on Armenia’s traditional family model.

She in particular spoke about the crisis of Armenian Constitutional Court that has grasped political agenda in Armenia. In 2015, former president Serge Sargsyan initiated the adoption of a new constitution to transform the country from a presidential rule to a parliamentary one. It is widely believed that this step was taken for the sole purpose of extending his rule after his presidency was term-limited in 2018, this time as the prime minister of the country.

It is also claimed that when writing the new Constitution Hrair Tovmasyan, the chairman of the Constitution Court, had his own plans to ensure his post for many years to come, by adding a clause that the “members” of the Constitutional Court will continue to remain in office until they turn 70 years old.

There is no doubt that seizure of the government is the most essential matter for Armenian politics, even passed the red line. In fact, intervention to the supreme law of the state, Constitution, for his own self-interest is the edge of political ethics and is deception of nation, which cannot be acceptable at any way.