All three pillars of democracy in Armenia have fallen: Tatevik Soghoyan

Armenia has strayed from the democratic path and is repeating all the vicious patterns it previously criticized: from election fraud to pressure on the judiciary and human rights violations. This was stated by Tatevik Soghoyan, lawyer, during a panel discussion titled “Armenia on the path to authoritarianism” at the Alpha Media Centre.

According to her, democracy is judged by three main criteria: respect for human rights, separation of powers and a system of checks and balances, and free and fair electoral processes. In Soghoyan’s view, all three of these pillars have been destroyed in Armenia.

“About three years ago, I asked a member of parliament from the ruling party whether he could name even one unseemly act committed by previous governments that the ‘Civil Contract’ had not also committed. He replied, ‘We didn’t rig elections.’ That’s how, among themselves, they try to justify any violation of the law. But recent events have shown that this, too, has happened. Blatant fraud right in front of people’s eyes. As a result of some trick, around 60,000 votes disappeared, and it turned out these were the votes of people whose opinion didn’t matter much. The Constitutional Court also took the monumental position that counting these votes would interfere with the will of the remaining 1.4 million voters. How is the will of other citizens harmed when you’re effectively destroying the votes of 60,000 voters?” Soghoyan noted.