The head of the Bright Armenia faction, Edmon Marukyan, was asked how he felt about Serzh Sargsyan’s evaluation as a member of the opposition, where the latter said, “Developments that are dangerous to democracy in the country are taking place. The fundamentals of constitutionalism are being violated. The principle of checks and balances among the authorities is not being put into use. The independence of the judicial system has been violated many times and has been proven. Political persecutions are taking place. Aggressive action toward opposition media outlets and activists has become frequent. Intolerance and hate speech have reached worrying levels.”
Marukyan responded, “Serzh Sargsyan is speaking about something that has to do with his own self. The mechanisms of checks and balances in the constitution have been misrepresented, and his government was the author of that constitution. The current authorities inherited the super-prime minister system, which Serzh Sargsyan established for himself, but was unable to enjoy for reasons we are all aware of. And he is now speaking about that system post-factum. So, he is criticizing a system he established for himself.”
Edmon Marukyan said that democracy in Armenia is on an emotional level. On an institutional level, we have what Serzh Sargsyan eloquently expressed in his speech and what he can criticize the current authorities for due to the fact that they have not yet changed the system.
Regarding political persecution, Marukyan said that, if such a thing did take place, he would have definitely made a statement. His team did see persecution on behalf of Judge Danibekyan, which was called out. “We can also speak about Arsen Babayan, whose detention as a deterrence method was illegal, but I cannot say that what happened can be considered political persecution.”
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Hripsime Jebejyan
