Is Armenia an authoritarian state?
Yerkir
May 28, 2004
During parliamentary briefing on May 27 faction representatives
discussed more political development rather than legislative
activities.
Who is governing Armenia today? Is Armenia democratic? Did the
president behave accurately during the opposition activation
period? How is the legislative activity possible in terms of the
opposition boycotting? These questions were answered by all faction
except for the opposition which once again skipped the briefing.
ARF faction leader Levon Mkrtchian believes Armenia is now governed by
the constitution. The first person is the president who is responsible
for home and foreign policies. There is the political coalition which
has its share of responsibility. As to Robert Kocharian’s presidency,
he has been carrying out his functions and expressed his position at
every necessary point.
The leader of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) believes that
the presidents should have been stricter, since tolerance brings even
worse consequences.
Touching upon the estimation of an international legal organization
that called Armenia authoritative, Mkrtchian advised to consider
the purpose and period of the made assessment. “The activities of
such organizations have a subjective factor which implies certain
regional, geopolitical issues that do not exclude pressures,” said
Mkrtchian. “Our route is democracy, since otherwise we would not be
a member of many international prestigious organizations.”
Regarding these issues, leader of RPA Galust Sahakian said: “The
trouble is that any phrase and judgment of a foreigner is more
discussed than the issues of our national interests.”
Leader of the Orinats Yerkir faction Samvel Balasanian stated that
Armenia has a primary development stage of democracy.
As to the recessed dialogue, the coalition once again stated its
determination to bring the opposition back to the political field.
Levon Mkrtchian said: “The coalition always tried to get the opposition
back to dialogue, since otherwise political functions are passed to
the legal field.
The dialogues must take place not only between the coalition and the
opposition but the society must also be prepared for it. And the
society has mad clear its point: it wants t be able to peacefully
live and work in between the elections. It does not want shock.”
The political forces say the issue of depriving the boycotting
opposition of parliamentary mandates is not on the agenda, but it
can have more serious political consequences.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress