With only members of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party voting, Armenia’s parliament on Thursday approved the government’s five-year plan, after three days of intense, often raucous, debates.
The opposition Armenia and I Have Honor blocs, which harshly criticized the plan, did not vote.
During the presentation of the plan, Pashinyan touted the need to open what is being called regional infrastructures, in what he said would be important for regional stability, at a time when Azerbaijani forces have advanced their positions inside Armenia’s sovereign borders for more than three months.
In the flawed plan presented to parliament, in between brawls between opposition and government lawmakers, Pashinyan pledges that the government will do its utmost to ensure peace and stability in the region.
Pashinyan said, ensuring the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Armenia, a “fair solution” to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, and creating a favorable external environment around Armenia will remain priority tasks for his government.
Large-scale reforms in the army and active foreign policy to improve Armenia’s external security have also been highlighted in the government plan, at a time when Pashinyan has appointed loyalists with no diplomatic experience, Ararat Mirzoyan as Armenia’s Foreign Minister and Lilit Makunts as Armenia’s Ambassador to the U.S.
As an important security factor, Pashinian singled out Armenia’s strategic alliance with Russia and the country’s membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, the chairmanship of which will be assumed by Armenia in the fall.
He also stressed the importance of continuing negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs aimed at determining the final status for Nagorno-Karabakh.
Opposition forces view Pashinyan’s overtures for peace and regional stability as a harbinger of more “capitulation,” as they blame the prime minister for the embarrassing defeat of last year’s 44-Day war, which resulted in surrender of Armenian territories to Azerbaijani in both Armenia and Artsakh.
Opposition representatives have been vocal in their criticism of Pashinyan for not only mishandling of the war, but also the coronavirus pandemic, which claimed more than a 1,000 lives.
The opposition can go and self-fornicate. Their sole mission is to disrupt the governing. They are clearly engaged in a conspiracy to aid and abet our enemies. They should be ashamed of themselves. The five-year plan is fine and the country will move forward whether the opposition likes it or not.
Representatives of both opposition parties have make mockery of themselves and their parties. It is vey sad that Asbarez has became fake news and flawed. I do not recall criticizing murdered and corrupt Kocharyan and Sarkisyan. You never supported the Armenian revaluation and democratically elected Armenian government. The only goal of opposition parties are to come to power and any price.
I completely agree with you. It is very sad that Asbarez has became fake news and flawed. I wish more people would bring up the truth about so called opposition parties.
What revolution and what government? Those who think a revolution took place in Armenia a few years ago don’t know the meaning of revolution. There was only a regime change. Sargsyan a relatively competent politician with military experience was replaced by Pashinyan an incompetent journalist trying to act as a leader. In a TRUE revolution a complete and fundamental political and socio-economic change takes places when the new government takes power. No such things took place in Armenia. The head of the former regime was replaced but the foundation of the regime remained intact In Armenian, Հայաստանում տեղի ունեցավ իշխանափոխություն և ոչ թե հեղափոխություն.
There is no functioning government in Armenia right now. Armenian border regions are under constant threats from the despicable enemy, people living in border regions feel unsafe, there are intrusions into Armenian territory and illegal border crossings by the enemy and this dysfunctional government has given orders not to engage the enemy! What the hell kind of government is this? A functioning government is supposed to protect its population and defend its borders. What does a former journalist know about running a country that has been at war for the last thirty years? Not to mention with no military experience whatsoever. A country at war needs a strong leader that the enemy fears and will think twice about violating Armenia’s border. Under this incompetent government the enemy has camped out inside Armenia’s sovereign territory and this make-believe leader acts like everything is normal.
And how is it possible after what happened as a result of thar disastrous September war that the same incompetent former journalist was reelected to run the country? This is unheard of and it is unprecedented. Whose votes did he get? He got the votes of a politically ignorant and gullible population who based their votes on the increase in their pensions, road constructions and freedom of expression. These alone show a major degradation in our societal values. That is to put self-interests above all else. Shameful!
I don’t understand under which journalistic oath, writers of articles feel that it is okay for them not to sign their name on their work. It’s truly a sign of fear, weakness and lack of faith in the expression of your headline down to your concluding sentence. For some semblance of integrity, sign and author you work and be fearless of others’ judgement.