Politician: Armenia needs professionals of the future, not from the past

Arminfo, Armenia
Sept 24 2020

ArmInfo. There are no reforms in Armenia today with the course of which I would be satisfied. A similar opinion was expressed to ArmInfo by the leader of the  "Enlightened Armenia" party Edmon Marukyan.

"For example, behind the reforms in the justice sector,  unfortunately, the return of torture to penitentiary institutions is  already evident. This was not observed for a long time, however,  today the torture of people in our penitentiary institutions is again  becoming a reality. Any reform has its own period. And, in my  opinion, the period for transitional justice is over. All this had to  be done immediately after the revolution, "he said.

Judicial and legal reform, according to Marukyan, has totally failed.  And Prime Minister Pashinyan initially accepted and supported the  idea of vetting proposed by Enlightened Armenia, but then, for some  reason, refused it. Moreover, judges due to whose fault Armenia pays  compensation according to the decisions of the ECHR today become  members of the Constitutional Court and candidates for presidency of  the Constitutional Court, and do not resign, as the prime minister  demanded.

Based on this state of affairs, the politician characterizes the  authorities as unprincipled and inconsistent in the implementation of  their own plans and decisions. Power is quite consistently destroying  all the hopes of society connected with itself. And according to  Marukyan's estimates, one should not expect from the authorities of  such content, such quality and such a level of professionalism the  resurrection of the judicial and legal reform.

At the same time, according to the politician's assessments, there is  certainly a professional staff in Armenia, and not only in the  judicial and legal, but also in other, very different spheres.  However, their involvement in work for the benefit of a common cause  is hindered by the separation of "blacks" and "whites" proclaimed by  the authorities. Which is quite consistent with her policy of  separation. Meanwhile, the limited resources of Armenia simply  dictate the need for the opposite process – the process of  consolidation.

At the same time, Marukyan in no way considers Robert Kocharian or  Serzh Sargsyan as such professionals, who have already managed to  demonstrate their own abilities in the last two decades.  According  to him, these are people from the past, meanwhile, today Armenia  needs people of the future.  This is what today's reality demands.

"I mean a lot of professionals who have never held government  positions and posts in Armenia. These are people from the private  sector, public organizations, the media sphere, the academic sphere.  These are the people who need to be involved in governing the  country. Meanwhile, Nikol Pashinyan's power continues the work of his  predecessors. What Kocharyan and Sargsyan did not manage to finish.  To make sure that I am right, just look at the Republicans in the "My  Step" bloc or at the notorious cadres of Serzh Sargsyan in the  Pashinyan government, "concluded Marukyan.