Pashinyan says new constitution will help eradicate outlawed ‘criminal subcult

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said that the adoption of a new constitution is needed, among other things, for effectively tackling the “criminal subculture.”

In a video message presenting the Civil Contract party’s election program, he said that an effective fight against the criminal subculture is a vital necessity for the future development of Armenia.

Criminal subculture—the so-called hierarchy-based code of conduct among criminals, originally believed to have emerged in the notorious Soviet prisons and linked to the self-styled “thieves in law,” and later spread into society as a mostly denounced street-code mentality—has been outlawed in Armenia amid anti-mafia efforts. Some criminal subculture-related hazing incidents have reportedly taken place in the military.

Pashinyan emphasized that the destructive influence of the criminal subculture in the country has not been sufficiently recognized and that, in its essence, it is an “anti-social, anti-state, and anti-human subculture.”

“Combating it should first of all be carried out through educational and civilizational tools, but the law enforcement system must also increasingly focus on improving the effectiveness of practical efforts against this problem,” Pashinyan noted.

The Prime Minister stressed that the criminal subculture is the cause of many of today’s problems. “Including when we think about many undesirable phenomena in the country, we see that these phenomena are directly linked to the criminal subculture, including certain distortions in relations within the army and certain distortions in public relations among young people. Of course, we understand that the establishment of the state and state institutions is of great importance and essential for solving this problem. Here too, the adoption of a new Constitution is very important, because, in essence, the ideological basis of the criminal subculture is resistance to the state, the state order, and legality. Many do not notice this nuance. In the criminal subculture, stealing is considered normal at all levels. For the criminal subculture, stealing from a person, from the state, or from a friend is considered normal. Whereas the legal order—the Constitution—on the contrary, says that stealing is not allowed and must lead to accountability,” Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister then talked about what he described as a ‘historical gap’ in today’s reality.

“That historical gap is about the following. The historical experience of our last centuries tells us that others have set the rules of how we live for us. And we have not yet overcome this historical memory and impression. Why? Because we have not recorded—and it has not happened—that in the Republic of Armenia the people are the source of the creation of the legal order. Our historical memory tells us the following: the Persian Empire imposed certain rules of living on us. Then the Ottoman Empire imposed certain rules of living on us, then the Russian Empire imposed certain rules of living on us, then the Soviet Empire imposed certain rules of living on us. In the case of the Republic of Armenia, something different happened. A group of people gathered and wrote the text of the Constitution, then organized a referendum, where as a result of the referendum the Constitution did not receive the necessary number of votes from the people, but it was still declared adopted. It turned out that again others set the rules of living for us. And it is also in this political situation that it becomes impossible in Armenia to eliminate or remove the criminal subculture, or at least bring it to a level where it is not noticeable. Why? Because the legal order established by others has not received legitimacy from the people, and those “others” in this case are from the Armenian reality itself. Therefore, resistance to that legal order takes on a certain acceptance in our society and reality in the form of a criminal subculture. Resistance to the legal order is perceived as a sign of strength, just as, for example, it was perceived in the Ottoman Empire—at a subconscious level. These are very serious problems. And in many cases we do not see the direct connection between our state and public problems and the criminal subculture, but I think it is time for us to confront this issue,” said the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

Pashinyan emphasized that the criminal subculture is mainly attractive to young men as the main target group. “For me, in Armenia, one phenomenon is obvious: in all spheres of public life, girls and women are visibly becoming more competitive. Of course, I am very glad that the role of women in Armenia is increasing, and that women’s competitiveness in education and all other fields is increasing, but the issue here is that the competitive position of boys is being undermined primarily by the criminal subculture, when certain obstacles and barriers are created, including under its influence, between education and boys, and between the legal order and boys. This is a very serious problem that we must confront and overcome. And here too, I see the solutions at the subconscious and socio-psychological level in the adoption of a new Constitution,” the Prime Minister concluded.

Pashinyan has spoken about the need to adopt a new constitution for many years, since his early years in office. He argues that the current constitution—with its most recent amendments made in 2015—lacks any “organic link” with the people, since the legitimacy of the referendums is questioned.