The “Velvet Revolution” of 2018 in Armenia washed away the old republican political elite of the country and brought a new generation of politicians into the power corridors. Let’s try to answer the question: Who are they? Up-and-coming young professionals, or populists incapable of professional political activity?
An analysis of the composition of the ruling bloc “My Step”, which single-handedly changes the basic law of Armenia, creates a rather curious picture. 28 out of 88 deputies of the “My Step” bloc are people between the ages of 27 and 35. Renewal on the face, fresh blood came to parliament. A closer look at the official data from the website of the National Assembly makes one think … Most of the young deputies are journalists, marketers, accountants, political scientists, employees of non-profit and international organizations, including the notorious George Soros Foundation and its affiliated structures. The winemaker, the major of the customs service, the teacher and the silver medalist of the 2012 Olympics are a little out of this row.
Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan has repeatedly stated about the modernization of the country’s economy, the need to renew agriculture, restructure its industry and create high-tech, science-intensive industries. Such a message from the head of government requires the presence in parliament of deputies who are at least familiar with this issue, and ideally have experience in this area. How competent are other parliamentarians in these issues, who in the overwhelming majority have a liberal arts education, or have taken various courses at European and American NGOs?
Some of the deputies have short-term experience of working in executive bodies. For example, the deputy M.I. Hayrapetyan worked for half a year as the Minister of Diaspora of Armenia, in which he was assiduously assisted by the current deputy V.S. Hakobyan. At the same time, Prime Minister Pashinyan, in search of investments in the long-suffering economy of the republic, tried to find an approach to the largest Armenian diasporas in the USA, Russia and France. The result of these searches is obvious – large investors from French, American and Russian Armenians did not invest in a country run by such professionals. After all, the development of the economy, the building of a competitive industry and agriculture is not the preparation of a “project for the development of civil society institutions” and the protection of the notorious representatives of LGBT people, knowledge and experience are needed there. In turn, the answer to the question about the professionalism of the head of the Ministry of Diaspora, the current deputy of parliament, is also quite obvious.
At least five young politicians are directly, or through affiliated structures, connected with the Soros Foundation, which has earned a far from unambiguous reputation in the post-Soviet space, which was repeatedly mentioned by the former head of the National Security Service Vanetsyan. In this connection, a question arises before the voter – whose interests are defended in parliament, for example, by the former responsible for the civil society programs of the Open Society Foundation of Armenia, deputy S.V. Avetisyan? Citizen Armen or Mister George?
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