Azernews.Az

Friday March 29 2024

Armenians demand to start real fight against corruption

24 May 2018 17:14 (UTC+04:00)
Armenians demand to start real fight against corruption

By Rashid Shirinov

The ongoing protests in Armenia began to seriously disturb the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. He was the person who started these protests against the former government, but now Pashinyan himself is becoming the target of the dissatisfied population.

He has recently asked the protesters to stop blocking roads and state institutions and wait for the problems to be solved. However, this request had no effect. Later, Pashinyan demanded to stop protests.

“I cannot understand why there are citizens who do not respond properly to the call to stop all protests and work with the government. Once again I ask and demand to stop all actions of civil disobedience,” the prime minister wrote on his Facebook page on May 23.

However, it is quite understandable why Armenians continue their protests. The population brought Pashinyan to power for him to solve the main problems as soon as possible, first and foremost, to eradicate corruption.

The former government led by Serzh Sargsyan held no tangible fight against corruption in the country. This is confirmed by the fact that Armenia is 132nd among 176 countries in terms of corruption risks according to the Transparency International’s.

Although the EU contributed 1.5 million euro for two anti-corruption projects in Armenia some years ago, the doleful situation has shown no signs of change.

A fight against corruption in Armenia implies declaration of war to the criminal-oligarchic system in the country. Therefore, Sargsyan and his team never went for it, since this would mean declaration of war to themselves.

However, Pashinyan, leading the new government of Armenia also stands idly by and does not dare to fight against corrupt officials. He is well aware of these people, who were becoming rich thanks to taking bribes, concealing their income, evading taxes and being engaged in extortion.

Therefore, the inaction of the government raises questions. The Armenian media suggest that Pashinyan could become the prime minister only because he promised safety to the biggest corrupt officials of the Sargsyan regime. So, it seems that the population of Armenia will continue to live under the corrupt oligarchic system in the upper echelons of power in the coming years.

---

Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more