Under Pashinyan, Armenia has turned into a classic authoritarian state: Beniamin Matevosyan

Under Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia has turned into a classic authoritarian state. This was stated by Beniamin Matevosyan, political scientist, during a panel discussion titled “Armenia on the path to authoritarianism” at the Alpha Media Centre. According to him, the authorities are doing everything they can to convince themselves that citizens voted against them solely because of “election bribes.”

“When we were discussing the topic of our event, the question arose: is Pashinyan’s Armenia an authoritarian country? Absolutely, yes. What’s happening in our country is a classic manifestation of authoritarianism. Why are some novels considered classics? Because the simple truths laid out in them keep repeating themselves in life. At this stage, I was rereading Gabriel García Márquez’s novel ‘The Autumn of the Patriarch.’ There’s an episode in which, after the dictator’s death, people storm the palace, but before that, the patriarch orders that detainees be interrogated until they give the answer he deep down wants to hear. The same thing is happening here now,” Matevosyan noted.