Corruption remains a root cause for deplorable Armenian economy
By Rashid Shirinov
The deplorable state of the Armenian economy has many reasons, and the terrible corruption is one of the root causes for that. The country’s government pretends to fight against corruption, but the situation is not changing in a positive direction.
“The Armenian president must leave the state power, and then necessary conditions may appear for Armenia to solve a problem of corruption,” Manvel Sargsyan, director of the Armenian Center for National and International Studies, said in his recent interview with Tert.am.
The expert noted that the U.S. and Europe are tired of reiterating that corruption must be combated in Armenia, because, basically, corruption harms the state. He said that a number of high-ranking EU officials were calling for an expanded and serious fight against corruption in Armenia.
“We saw the RPA’s [the ruling Republican Party of Armenia] violent reaction to all this, because at first they said that such statements are aimed at interference in Armenia’s internal affairs, but anyway everyone realized that corruption is the main problem in the country,” Manvel Sargsyan said.
Corruption was called as the key problem of the Armenia-EU agreement, as it stands at the heart of the framework agreement between Armenia and the European Union and other agreements, demanding from Armenia to fight corruption and build a judicial system.
“Armenia signed the agreement, but the question is what will happen in the future,” the expert said.
Commenting on the fact that Armenia will be accountable for fulfilling its obligations given considerable amounts allocated to that end, Manvel Sargsyan noted that the ruling authorities will only pretend to fight against corruption.
“What will the RPA representatives be busy with? These people will try once again to derail the process. How can a person fight himself or with his essence?” he exclaimed.
Today, many in Armenia are aware that the actions of the Armenian government against corruption are fake – the authorities have to imitate efforts in this direction due to their obligations before international organizations and partner countries. However, the allocated amounts themselves get stolen because the government is itself mired in corruption.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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