ALEXANDER ISKANDARIAN POINTS OUT EXISTENSE OF WEAK AUTHORITIES IN
ARMENIA AND ABSENCE OF OPPOSITION
YEREVAN, APRIL 28, NOYAN TAPAN. “The year of 2005 was in essense
continuation of the tendency in Armenia that may be called the death
of the Armenian opposition,” Alexander Iskandarian, the Director of
the Caucasus Media Institute, stated at the April 28 international
conference “Caucasus-2005” organized by the Caucasus Media
Institute. According to him, the rating of the opposition continued to
decrease in 2005 what was especially brightly releaved after the
referendum on the constitutional amendments when very few people
attended rallies of the opposition: “Talks about the revolution in
Armenia bored, and it became clear after the events followed the
referendum.” In A.Iskandarian’s opinion, Armenia needs appearing of
new opposing forces and re-formation of the old opposition. “The
innerpolitical situation of Armenia may be characterized in the
following way – weak authorities and no opposition,” he stated.
According to him, among factors of the foreign policy, the greatest
influence on the situation in Armenia and South Caucasus in general
was left by the involvement of those countries in the European
Neighborhood Policy, start of taking the Russian military bases from
the territory of Georgia and rise in gas prices by Russia. As for the
processes that took place the last year round one of the most
important elements of the Armenian foreign policy – settlement of the
Karabakh conflict, according to Iskandarian, the course towards the
conservation of the conflict was continued by the conflicting sides.