ArmInfo. Of course, the results of the parliamentary elections held in Armenia were predictable. The President of the Scientific Society of Caucasus Studies declared this on December 10 at a press conference, an expert of the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences named after E.M. Primakov Alexander Krilov.
He noted that according to preliminary experts' forecasts, it was expected that Pashinyan's bloc would get 70% of the votes, the second would be Gagik Tsarukyan's party, and mostly there were disagreements about who would take 3rd and 4th places. "It was of course unexpected that representatives of the Republican Party of Armenia and Sasna Tsrer did not go to the parliament. As we see, the country has a tendency to change the political elite, new parties and young politicians have appeared", the expert noted.
As for the turnout, Krilov said that she was not so low. "There was a lot of talk about the low turnout indicating Pashinyan's low support, but as we can see, this isn't so.
The expert said that now the main agenda will not be internal political contradictions, but reforms in the socio-economic field. "Anyway, the period of dual power has ended in Armenia. Now representatives of both legislative and executive authorities are members of the same political force. Today, the main issue is not the obtaining, but the realization of power. This is a much more complicated issue. Of course, there will be a personnel revolution in the country, and reforms will be carried out in the socio-economic field", concluded Krilov.
In turn, Andrey Areshev, a senior researcher at the Center for the Study of the Caucasus at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said that Armenia faces a number of foreign policy challenges, and, according to the expert, economic reforms will also be needed in the country. "Among the foreign policy challenges there is not only the Karabakh issue, but the strength of Armenia's relations with Iran will be tested," Areshev said.
Areshev, as well as Krilov, considered that earlier turnout data were overstated, and the current figures are not so bad.