Wednesday, September 11 2019 10:39

ArmInfo. From now on there  are no more people in Armenia, who would hope to build an  authoritarian power system. Director of the Armenian Center for  Strategic and National Studies Manvel Sargsyan expressed a similar  opinion to ArmInfo.

"Armenia became independent in 1991, and already in 1992 opposition  to power appeared in the country.  The opposition had the only idea  and purpose of changing the government. At the same time, no one  wanted to introduce the people to the country's development program,  they did not even have any. The need to change the power was simply  determined by the need for a "change of the criminal regime," he  stressed.

However, according to the analyst, in the spring of 2018, along with  the previous government, the ideas were gone, since there were never  any ideas other than a change of power among the opposition,  including the My Step bloc that came to power. As a result, some  forces tried to get out of the vacuum formed in the political field,  again returning to the demands for a change of power. However,  according to Sargsyan, Armenian society is no longer interested in  such games.

Nevertheless, according to the analyst, the internal political life  in Armenia began to leave the state of vacuum, and the internal  political processes are gradually developing. Unlike previous  decades, the situation, according to Sargsyan, quickly changed by the  environmental problem around Mount Amulsar. In his opinion, no one  expected that not only part of society would oppose the new  government, and Prime Minister Pashinyan, but also parliamentarians  who had appeared in parliament as a result of the victory of the "My  Step" bloc in early parliamentary elections.

Amulsar gold mine is located ten kilometers from the resort of  Jermuk. According to the explored reserves of gold, the deposit takes  the second place in Armenia. Geological exploration, which began in  2007, ended in 2015 with an environmental and social assessment of  mining at the mine. Civil activists and environmentalists opposed the  mine's operation, organizing mass protests in this regard, forcing  Lydian Armenia to conduct additional research.

Sargsyan sees the reasons for such a qualitatively new situation, the  resolution of which is wholly linked to the resolution of the Amulsar  problem, in the environmental movements that have appeared in Armenia  over the past decade. In his opinion, it was the participants in  these movements, who formed new technologies and forged personnel to  oppose the power. As a result, it was precisely such a movement that  demolished the old system of power initiating a popular wave of  protest.  "Thus, the power that replaced the Republicans, in  principle, can put aside practically any problem for later.  Any  problem, but not the one related to the environment. And deciding to  confront the public on environmental issues, the government  immediately shook. It's clear that, having realized the threats, that  such development poses to personally himself the Prime Minister is  trying to find a solution to Amulsar, "he said.

According to the analyst, Amulsar has a potential that can put Nikol  Pashinyan in a situation where his parliament will appoint a  completely different person as prime minister. Just like it happened  last year with the Parliament of Serzh Sargsyan.  It should be noted  that on September 9, the Prime Minister of Armenia appealed to the  residents of Jermuk and civil activists with a call to unblock the  roads leading to the Amulsar mine. Pashinyan justified this by the  need to study the situation on the spot, assuring the protesting  activists that the mine would not be operated anyway until mid-2020.