WE HAVE NO POLITICAL CULTURE

Panorama.am
12:53 11/05/06

“I think that the political culture is underdeveloped here. Otherwise,
we would not be called a post-Soviet country but a democratic state
based on rule of law.

We have much to do in this regard,” Human Rights Ombudsman Armen
Harutunian told a conference at Yerevan State University.

He thinks that adoption of laws and structural changes are not the
most important things for post-soviet countries as long as the soviet
states had some achievements in those fields. “We need development
of a political culture so that people change their mentality and ways
of thinking,” he said.

Another issue is whether the adopted laws are, in fact, enforced or
the structures are functional.

According to political scientist Aghasi Yenokyan, Armenian has stayed
behind of democratic processes during the last few years. “Structures
and institutions for a democratic state are in place.

However they do not perform their basic functions,” he said.

Armenia is in more favorable conditions in terms of democracy as
compared with Azerbaijan, he said. “But compared with Baltics,
we have much to do because our country has never experienced fair
elections, as the Ukraine or Georgia have done,” says the political
scientist.