West urges Armenia to stop hatred against former authorities
By Rashid Shirinov
Similarly to the former leaders of Armenia, the Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is currently working on the development of a policy that would please both patrons of the country – Russia and the West. Last week, the representatives of the latter – two PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia Giuseppe Galati and Yulia Lovochkina – visited the country for three days.
Armenian media note that the purpose of the visit was collecting facts about the current situation in Armenia. Obviously, the West is trying to find out what is happening in Armenia and whether the revolutionary Nikol Pashinyan meets its criteria.
Summing up their observations, the co-rapporteurs noted in their report on May 29 that they expect deep and rapid changes that the Armenians have set before the new authorities. They also expressed their concern about the “words of hatred” spread in the Armenian segment of social networks against the former authorities, and called on all political forces in Armenia to criticize this phenomenon.
It is noteworthy that such behavior of the Armenian public in social networks was being fueled by Pashinyan himself when he was just the leader of the anti-government protests. Presently, the prime minister still continues to support the hatred of the population against the former government by claiming that the Republican Party of Serzh Sargsyan is going to make a counter-revolution in the country.
Another requirement of the co-rapporteurs is related to the possible extraordinary parliamentary election in Armenia. Pashinyan really needs to hold this election, whilst the West objects to this.
“The criteria of the Venice Commission should be maintained, according to which the electoral legislation should be stabilized before the election, as well as the political forces should be provided with sufficient time to prepare for early election,” Galati and Lovochkina’s report reads.
Given that Armenia has always been dependent on its patrons, mainly on their funding, Pashinyan now has to develop such a scenario of the further actions that would not make the West turn away from the poor South Caucasus country.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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