– In several days Yerevan for the first time will go through the elections of the city council. Numerous opinions where heard about the importance of the elections. If we consider the city council elections in the external aspect to what extent do they match with the logic of the policy of European integrity and especially if we take into account the Eastern Partnership Program launched at the beginning of this year.
– Perhaps among the member-states of the Council of Europe the only country where the mayor is appointed is Azerbaijan. This is also the demand of the EU charter. In this regard the road to integration really takes to the EU. As of the elderly council elections of Yerevan perhaps on one hand the importance is overestimated and on the other hand underestimated. But if we go through the previous years, then we will see that as in past we still have an elderly council, which lacks development. In general, when we go through the European charter then we see that the main local government body is the elderly council and the head of the community is the auxiliary of the council. In our country everything is topsy-turvy and this is first of all visible with the fact that the elderly council has very limited powers. It is not an accident that very often becoming a member of the elderly council is associated with acquiring a kiosk or garage space. In fact that doesn’t play any role in the governance of the city. From now on the elderly council will play a unique role in regulation of relations with the mayor. Perhaps the reason is that now the elderly council will be a political body as it will be comprised based on the proportional political party lists. In practice, of course, we cannot exclude that here may also be narrow personal interests but as a subject we will have to deal with political parties rather than individuals. But perhaps the greatest role of the elderly council is the direct election of the mayor of Yerevan. This is something that we don’t have in other communities. But here the important thing is not only the election. The elderly council can make decisions in parallel with the mayor and can play a key role in the resolution of city issues. This means that unlike other communities Yerevan is going to be headed by a collective body and the issues will be resolved not individually but collectively through healthy discussions. One of the omissions of our political system is the absence of political life at the mentioned levels. After the parliamentary and presidential elections the political life is sort of said evaporated and the political parties find that they can be represented only during national elections and that their platforms make sense only then. As of the participation in other major cities of Armenia, such as Gyumri and Vanadzor political forces find dishonorable to run mayoral races there. But during the mayoral race of Yerevan we have almost all the key political players running in it, which means that the city council is not going to be a regular and average one. In general, the model, which is applied in Yerevan, conforms to international standards.
– The development of the local government, including the step of having an elected body of Yerevan city, is also substantiated with the necessity of decentralization of the government. In your opinion, in the Armenian reality to what extent will the May 31 elections conduce to the decentralization of the government? Don’t you think that this mostly has declarative meaning for Yerevan?
– If we carefully read the Constitution of 1995 and analyze its contents then I should unfortunately mention that the Armenia could easily change the title by naming it a typical dualistic monarchy constitution. All the traits of the monarchy are reflected in the government. The president has sole powers for key decisions and authorities. After becoming a member of the Council of Europe this matter was strictly criticized because of centralized power in Armenia. This is not acceptable for the European family. The amended Constitution of 2005 is aimed at decentralizing the central power and the mayoral election of Yerevan is one of the axes of this process. Besides that we have enver had a local government body in Armenia in past. The mayor of Yerevan until nowadays is appointed by the central power. Yerevan mayor is the eye of the government in Yerevan city. Now we are going to have a mayor with new contents. Indeed, this decentralization must take place because the development of the local government system is one of the key elections of democracy.
– Don’t you think as long as in Armenia the electoral mechanisms remain the same (ballot stuffing, scuffles) these changes will only have a formal meaning?
– Here we have the story of the hen and egg. I can say that as long as we have an extremely centralized government and as long as the power of the country is in the hands of one person the electoral system cannot be developed. In our reality we have the president, who orders around his subordinates all the time, the police and courts are not independent. Indeed, I cannot disagree with you because if the electoral mechanisms are not perfect and don’t conform to international criteria then all this can be formal to show to the Europeans. But on the other hand, if you have an extremely centralized government then you should also forget that electoral system for awhile. As long as the election violator is not considered a criminal culprit nothing will be changed in this country. We can call someone, who steals 5000 AMD from our pocket, but do we consider people, who offer bribes, criminals and culprits? Are the people, who stuff ballots, double-vote, considered thieves? I ensure you, no. He may be considered a flexible and agile dude but not a criminal. It means that we also have an issue of accepting these people. Under circumstances when the government does whatever it wishes and the opposition screams outside that once they come to power they are going to hang the criminals and governmental criminals, the government will hardly resign. It means that this is a multi-factor problem, which requires deep analysis.
– The EU Eastern Partnership Program anticipates a number of privileges for its member states and tight links with non-member states. In your opinion, is the Armenian political system ready for such cooperation?
– Creation of a relevant legislative environment is perhaps the easiest way for progress. But we should ask ourselves whether we are Europeans with our mentality and behavior. We want to live like Europeans but we do what Armenians do. These two things don’t match. We should either realize that it is a bad thing to take and offer bribes and that the Constitution defines that the human being is the highest value or not pretend. Our legislation doesn’t much differ from the European one. But we enforce this legislation differently. I feel for the Europeans and am inclined to believe that the Europeans are sincere in their goals and wishes. In Armenia we have authoritarian if not totalitarian regime; there is no free economic competition, human rights are not protected. These facts are hurdles for the Europeans even in the form of the flow of refugees from this country. They have an objective of equaling or at least providing the minimum compliance in order to reduce the inflow of refugees. Secondly, in the event of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes political collisions and unpredictable consequences are not excluded. And the Europeans indeed cannot cope with such countries in their neighborhood. Thirdly, Europe needs new markets especially during the period of the international crisis. Maybe Armenia is a small country and its market is not very attractive but it is still a market for Europe. It means that for any European investor the Armenian market should be predictable and transparent. In this regard I understand the Europeans well but I don’t understand us. We wish to live like Europeans but regulate the citizen-state relations just like in African states. And if we add to this that we don’t have bananas either, then we appear in a really bad state.
This supplement has been produced with the assistance of the European Union. The content of this supplement is the sole responsibility of “168 Hours” Newspaper and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Union