Politics

Today, former president Serzh Sargsyan became Armenia's new prime minister. Dr. Nerses Kopalyan outlines Sargsyan's achievements over the ten years as president. He writes: "The most vital complexity of Sargsyan becoming PM is that it not only reinforces, but also justifies the de-moralization of the Armenian citizen."

As Armenia's parliament elected Serzh Sargsyan as Armenia's prime minister today and as tens of thousands gathered in Republic Square in protest - here is a look back on the events of the last 48 hours through the lens of photojournalist Eric Grigorian.

While parliament prepares to elect the country’s new prime minister on April 17, thousands of Armenians poured out into the streets of the capital, exercising acts of civil disobedience. Clashes with security forces led to dozens of injuries. A recap of the day’s events.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Karabakh Movement was that in less than three years, it drastically changed how the Soviet value system was perceived. The visual and verbal manifestation of this was evident through the transformation of the language and texts of the posters and signs used during the Movement.

Demonstrators led by Nikol Pashinyan, leader of the Civil Contract party, have shut down a major square in Yerevan, paralyzing the downtown core of the capital to protest former President Serzh Sargsyan’s candidacy for the office of prime minister.

A newly adopted law on the “Formation and Activity of the Security Council” was recently passed in parliament that gives the new prime minister more powers over the country’s defense policy. This law came into effect to comply with the package of reforms that was passed in the 2015 Constitutional referendum.

Tatevik Hayrapetyan writes that the Karabakh Movement was a catalyst for domestic developments in Azerbaijan. Unlike in Armenia, however, alternative forces like the Azerbaijani Popular Front in Azerbaijan, couldn’t find a way to collaborate with the local Communist Party. The issue of Karabakh and anti-Armenian propaganda was thereby used in their struggle against the Communist regime.

In an exclusive interview with EVN Report’s contributor Varak Ketsemanian, Alexander Balistreri of the University of Basel reflects on some of the larger historical and historiographical problems pertinent to the region around Kars a century ago and sheds light on the political and military developments that shaped the policies of the Armenian government and the larger regional powers.

Shushan Doydoyan is the head of the Personal Data Protection Agency of the Ministry of Justice in Armenia. In this piece for EVN Report, she writes about the need to protect children's personal data, the law and media's responsibility.

Armenia’s president signed a decree on March 1 announcing the controversial Armenian-Turkish protocols null and void. Now that the the protocols are a thing of the past, Vahram Ter-Matevosyan writes that the time has come to draw some lessons from an initiative that was long dead.