For the political scientist Armen Badalyan, it is not accidental that the Concept Paper on the Constitutional Amendments changed a few days after the resignation of the prime minister. “Most likely some political process is going on in Armenia, and I do not think that it has Armenia-born authors. The purpose of this process is the change of a single center presidential power in Armenia into a Parliamentary government system with the most reliable and more trusted prime minister,” said the political scientist. He sees Russia behind these reforms. “Armenia has implemented about 70 percent of the road map to join the Customs Union, a very small percentage is left, which will be accomplished over the time and the leaders of the CU member countries would be much more controllable by the Russian authorities. Of course, this does not mean that today’s leaders are beyond control, however, we should not forget that today’s leaders are the ones who had some political negotiations with Europe for 3.5 years, which Russia has not forgiven and is looking for ways to get rid of them.” Mr. Badalyan is reluctant in his estimations and saying that Serzh Sargsyan’s tenure is at stake. “It depends on what kind of political functions the prime minister will fulfill. Because there are three possible options: a temporary prime minister, a long-term prime minister, which as a result of the Constitution will be the country’s head prime minister, and the third option is that the prime minister will stay until the end, then will be replaced by the president. Let’s see who the Prime Minister will be, then we will make more precise conclusions.” According to him, in the result of these amendments Armenia will become an easily manageable country for Russia.
Arpine SIMONYAN
