11:14,

YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. Freedom House published its annual report Nations in Transit 2022.

The report says that since 2004 “three authoritarian regimes made democratic strides and joined the ranks of hybrid regimes: Moldova, Kosovo, and now Armenia”.

According to the Freedom House report, Armenia made an improvement in its democracy score, from 2.96 to 3.04, on a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the lowest and 7 the highest level of democratic progress. Armenia registered progress in areas such as national democratic governance, electoral process, judicial framework and independence.

The country’s democracy percentage is 34%. According to the Freedom House, “the countries that have moved from authoritarian to hybrid forms of governance present a somewhat more promising picture, though they still fall short of democratic standards”.

“In Armenia, for example, citizens used a protest movement in 2018 and a series of competitive elections, most recently in 2021, to decisively end the Republican Party’s multidecade reign. The incumbents were replaced with a new generation of politicians who, despite notable flaws, possess a basic commitment to democracy and the public interest”, the report says.

The report also said that one-party dominance is typified by so-called “legislative turbo mode”. “This behavior is also on display in Armenia and Moldova, both of which feature postauthoritarian single party-dominated parliaments”, it added.

The report also noted that in Armenia, “local civil society groups were able to prevent the ruling party from pushing through a bill that would have placed its Human Rights Defender’s Office under greater government control”.

The report also touched upon the 2020 war in Nagorno Karabakh unleashed by Azerbaijan. It says that the 2020 military offensive launched by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Nagorno Karabakh killed thousands of people and displaced many more.