ArmInfo. Today Armenia is actively fighting with corrupt officials, and not against corruption. In any case, there is no systematic, institutional struggle against this fact in the country. On June 21 speaking at the "Caucasus-2018" international conference director of the Caucasus Institute, Alexander Iskandaryan, expressed a similar opinion.
"The political processes in Armenia, taking place on this background over the past year, are regarded by society differently. Supporters of the authorities consider the events of April-May 2018 as a revolution, and opponents only as a change of power. At the same time, we haven't seen any serious financial injections into the Armenian economy, which, apparently, the organizers of the Armenian revolution expected, we're not seeing, "he stressed.
According to Iskandaryan, the change of power became possible in Armenia due to many factors. Starting with the conditions under which Serzh Sargsyan came to power in the country, and ending with the internal and external prerequisites. In particular, in his opinion, Sargsyan as president was perceived by society as a continuation of the policy of Robert Kocharyan. In turn, according to his estimates, the 2008 global financial crisis also had a significant negative impact on Armenia. All this led to the stagnation of the economy, unemployment, social discontent of the population, which eventually resulted in emigration and political discontent.
"Thus, the low legitimacy of the ruling party and the weakness of the opposition were complemented by the relative softness of the ruling regime in relation to the protest movement and civil society. As a result, personalization of evil in the person of Serzh Sargsyan and good in the person of Nikol Pashinyan took place. To consolidate a huge number of protestors, revolutionaries put forward slogans and goals in the form of a struggle against oligarchy and corruption, "the political scientist concluded.