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Protests continue in Armenia despite of change of power

31 May 2018 16:31 (UTC+04:00)
Protests continue in Armenia despite of change of power

By Rashid Shirinov

Although Nikol Pashinyan succeeded in carrying out the “velvet revolution” in Armenia and became the head of the government, part of the people protesting against the former authorities did not stop their rallies.

Pashinyan has earlier urged the residents of Yerevan not to hold mass protests and rather to work with the government, and called the ongoing rallies a sabotage and provocation.

However, the new demands of the protesters are quite reasonable: they require the resignation of the mayor of Yerevan, reduction of fines for drivers and resolution of the housing issues.

Apparently, Pashinyan is simply unable to address these problems, given that he has insignificant support in the parliament. In contrast, there is a powerful opposition represented by the former ruling party RPA. The fact is that Pashinyan has no professional management skills and experience, as well as a competent team that would be able to prove the effectiveness of his government.

If no progressive developments occur in the country in the near future, Pashinyan will be at risk of losing power in Armenia. Therefore, the prime minister is trying to improve the socio-economic situation in the country, but it is to no avail. This requires substantial funding, but the problem is that huge amounts of money were withdrawn from the country during the mass protests against the former government.

Therefore, Armenia needs the inflow of capital from abroad: that is from Russia, the U.S. and the European Union. However, none of them has yet started providing Armenia with funding, since the situation in the country should first be normalized for this to happen.

This is yet another confirmation that the ongoing protests are utterly unfavorable for Pashinyan and his team. The continuation of civil disobedience calls into question the credibility of the new prime minister and his ability to control the situation in the country. This deters not only potential investors in Armenia’s economy, but also tourists, who could contribute to the improvement of the doleful situation in the country.

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

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