National Assembly of RA
30 Nov 2004

Shavarsh Kocharyan’s Press Conference

The topic of November 30-press conference of Shavarsh Kocharyan was the
history of Armenian democracy in the 90s and today. The opposition MP sees
the necessity of estimating the process of democracy, taking into
consideration its regression.
He presented the journalists his estimations on the former USSR republics.
As he, said the wave of democratization went back in 5 Middle Asian
countries, leaving space to authoritarian system. In the opinion of the
speaker, today a mixed system of authoritarianism and totalitarianism is
dominating also in Belarus, but conditioned by geographical position and
other activities, he thinks that the power of Alexander Lukashenko will not
last long. Georgia overcame the obstacles against the democracy by
“revolution of roses,” and the current process of Ukraine the deputy also
finds to be progressive. According to Shavarsh Kocharyan, the democratic
processes in Armenia and Azerbaijan are under a question. He considers this
a very painful fact, as at the beginning the world pinned big hopes with
Armenia. After the collapse of the USSR there were four countries (Baltic
countries and Armenia), which were initially directed to go through
democratic way. But Armenia has deviated from that way, said the deputy, and
appeared in a position, when having no alternatives, is contradicted to the
democratic values. Shavarsh Kocharyan noted that Russia does not always
speak for Armenia in the issues of strategic importance. The opposition MP
also thinks that our country is now in isolated situation,”in the aspect of
Karabakh we’ve reached to a point that it’s difficult to imagine what to do
next.”
The only way of coming out of the situation is to establish democracy, Mr.
Kocharyan believes. All this must be taken into distinct consideration and a
social order to be set up directed to all this, said Shavarsh Kocharyan.
Democracy is not only related to opposition, says Shavarsh Kocharyan.