By Rashid Shirinov
Armenia has failed the test for democracy, says the report titled “American funding of the Armenian democracy” prepared by the President of the National Press Club of Armenia Narine Mkrtchyan.
The report was presented at the recent panel discussion on democracy in Armenia, which was held at the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs.
The document notes that between 1991 and 2001, the United States provided assistance in the amount of $1.4 billion to Armenia. This amount was intended for democracy programs, economic and social reforms, as well as development of safety and legislation, formation of independent press, and implementation of other programs in Armenia.
However, “Armenia has not reached the shores of democracy, making a transition from a totalitarian regime to authoritarianism,” noted Mkrtchyan.
The Armenian government purposely approaches its final goal – to create a controlled democracy in this poor and weak post-Soviet country. The economy of Armenia is disappearing to nowhere as it suffers in all areas. However, the government spends very large amounts of money to implement constitutional amendments not supported by the people, only to ensure maintaining the power of the current authorities, who led the country to this such miserable state.
The report by Mkrtchyan notes that the parliamentary elections of 1995 in Armenia were supposed to be the exam of a free and fair electoral system, but the constitutional referendum and elections were accompanied by violence and falsification of votes, giving rise to the perversion of a free electoral system.
“Elections of 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2012 were held in the same conditions, when the government alliances constituted the majority in the Parliament,” the report says.
Mkrtchyan noted that candidates of the authorities usurped the power and grossly falsified the results of constitutional referendums.
“As for the parliamentary election of 2017, they disorganized the electoral system, and the state system was fully involved in the falsification of the election,” she stressed. “Armenia failed the test for democracy.”
President Serzh Sargsyan's Republican Party won the parliamentary elections of April 2, 2017. During and after the elections, a number of Armenian politicians, local and international observers and journalists noted that the parliamentary elections in Armenia had many violations and frauds. The observers from the Council of Europe, OSCE, the European Parliament and other international observers indicated these violations in their statements following the elections.
Mkrtchyan added that one of the main obstacles for the establishment of democracy in Armenia is corruption. The 2015 report of the Transparency International Anticorruption Center showed that Armenia is one of the most corrupt country of the world.
The rate of corruption in Armenia does not change over the years, and that means that corruption in the country was rooted and does not retreat, Mkrtchyan stressed.
The actions of the Armenian government against corruption are deceiving – the authorities have to imitate efforts in this direction as Armenia has obligations before international organizations, partner countries. However, the allocated money themselves get stolen because the government itself is widely involved in corruption.