ArmInfo.The ongoing protests in Armenia's capital and other cities and towns could serve as a background for an attempted coup and for showing alleged widespread discontent with Armenia's authorities and, therefore, a popular demand for a change of power, the public and political figure Garegin Miskaryan said in an interview with ArmInfo.
"Protests as such will not bring about any changes. And they will die down in the course of time if they are not accompanied with an attempted coup. And even if such an attempt is made, it will have nothing in common with the protests. In any case, an attempted coup cannot be ruled out, and such the primary reason for such a possibility is lack of reforms in the system of government. The security agencies to name a few, the same personnel with the same system of values in the same heads," he said.
In this context, Mr Miskaryan believes an attempted coup and Armenia backsliding to authoritarian and later to oligarchic rule is highly probable. Moreover, the incumbent government's steps demonstrate Armenia is moving toward a new oligarchy, but with different oligarchs.
In this context, the present authorities-opposition struggle both in Parliament and in the streets is a struggle for "redistribution of capital" between the former owners and the new elite. And the fact that this struggle does not contain a single hint at any ideological component is evidence that "all is fair" in this "war," which is only making a change of power by means of a coup more probable.
"Not a single hint at the defense of national interests in this struggle, which is being claimed by some. Rather, it is a struggle for power. And no steps have ever been made toward increasing sovereignty, justice, democracy in Armenia under either the former or incumbent authorities. After Armenia's transition from electoral authoritarianism to electoral democracy in 2018, we are backsliding to electoral authoritarianism again for a number of objective and subjective reasons. But a real democratic state has remained a dream," Mr Miskaryan said.
