Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who is on an official visit in Lithuania, visited Eastern Europe Studies Center in Vilnius and met with representatives of the expert community.
The Prime Minister first referred to the processes taking place in our country and in the South Caucasus region. In particular, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the early parliamentary elections in Armenia in June served for the first time in the history of our Republic as a tool to overcome the domestic political crisis.
“Usually the elections in our country have caused domestic political crises, perhaps the most noisy domestic political problems in the history of our country have emerged in post-election periods. This is the first time that elections have become a tool to overcome the crisis, not a cause of crises. After the war, there were serious discussions about how appropriate the parliamentary system is for Armenia. There were really reasons for that, but I must say that this election was described by international observers as free, competitive and democratic for the second time in a row, which is also unprecedented,” the Head of the Government said.
According to Nikol Pashinyan, these elections, which took place in the post-war period, generated some important political content. “After the war, it was important to set the guidelines in which Armenia should move. I must admit that the answers to these questions in the political field were not fully formulated, but the recent elections generated a specific political content. At least for our political force, it was not so much a political campaign as a dialogue with the citizens, where they were not only listeners, but also speakers. We were the ones to listen to what citizens thought about our history of the last 30 years. It was at this point, that the strategy which the Government of the Republic of Armenia included in its Action Plan was formulated. We describe it as a need to open an era of peaceful development for Armenia and the region,” the PM said, adding that it is also subject to criticism, which is comprehendible.
“Because developments take place every day, which, by and large, cast doubt on to what extent peace is possible in our region, or due to the situation we have in our region, over the conflict around the Republic of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.
There is also a bigger question: to what extent is democracy able to ensure security and peaceful development? But our position is clear that in spite of all the circumstances that question the competitiveness of the peace agenda, we must move consistently forward in that direction.
We believe that the policy of small steps should be adopted without rushing to set insurmountable benchmarks. On the other hand, concrete results and processes are needed. In this regard, we consider the resumption of the peace process within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs’ format for the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict necessary,” Prime Minister Pashinyan underlined.
Afterwards, the Prime Minister answered numerous questions of the experts related to the prospects of peace in the South Caucasus, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process, the implementation of democratic reforms in Armenia, the development of Armenia-EU relations and a number of other topics.
