“I want to point out that there is no internal threat to democracy in Armenia … All potential threats to democracy in Armenia are external, and these threats are, of course, well-known and visible to everyone,” he said during a “forum for democracy” organized in Yerevan by a local civic group and the U.S. watchdog Freedom House.
Pashinian did not name foreign countries which he thinks pose such threats. He pointed instead to the “thickest question” preoccupying the domestic public: “Is democracy also capable of ensuring security?”
“We do believe in a positive answer to this question but it has yet to be proved,” he told the conference held in the conspicuous absence of Armenian opposition leaders and other well-known critics of Pashinian.
The latter accuse the prime minister of tolerating no dissent, jailing his political opponents and curbing judicial independence.
Pashinian insisted that democracy is “Armenia’s main brand and our conviction and strategy.” He argued, in particular, that elections held on his watch were not marred by reports of serious fraud.
According to Freedom House’s latest Nations in Transit survey of former Communist countries released last week, Armenia remains a “hybrid regime” and has yet to become an established or even “semi-consolidated” democracy five years after the “velvet revolution” that brought Pashinian to power.
Still, Freedom House concluded that Armenia “continued to make democratic gains in 2022.”
“The potential for deterioration remains, however, as evidenced by arrests of opposition candidates before local elections last August,” cautioned its annual report. “With its dependence on authoritarian Russia for military protection against Azerbaijan, its openly hostile and equally authoritarian neighbor, Armenia’s democratic project faces uniquely powerful headwinds.”