Does democracy have a future?
Democracy is mainly distorted thanks to the close relationship between economic interests and politics, which is especially evident in Armenia. This is what representative of Open Society Foundation Armenia Office Yervand Shirinyan told "A1+". According to him, what especially cause huge problems in Armenia are the monopolies.
Yervand Shirinyan says the head of state has more powerful levers and that parliamentarism is a much weaker institute that makes it more difficult to promote democracy in the country.
Yervand Shirinyan and nearly 100 experts in more than 30 countries around the world participated in the three-day conference on "What will the future of democracy and civil society be like".
The participants of the conference stated that the conventional model of democracy has changed and that controlled democracy is very successful nowadays.
As for Armenia, Yervand Shirinyan believes that the maintenance of simple human rights in daily life is especially important for Armenia's progress in democracy.
He considers the police officers' statements at the round-the-clock rallies held at Freedom Square a violation of human rights, saying that they are illegitimate. "This clearly shows that human rights are being violated," Shirinyan said.
Freedom of speech is also one of the important standards of democracy. President of the Committee in Defense of Freedom of Speech Ashot Meliyan told "A1+" that freedom of speech is still at a very low level in Armenia.
According to him, the "golden age" of freedom of speech in Armenia was during the first years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but that didn't last long.
"The authorities realized that an uncontrolled press can become a serious critic, and the political figures were afraid of that because they didn't know what traditional democracy is about," Ashot Melikyan noted.
