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Giving a speech at the OSCE PA International Conference on Combating Corruption Defending Democracy: The Role of National Parliaments in Nicosia, the MP Hripsime Grigoryan noted:

“Thank you dearest Irene Charalambides,

Honorable madam President, Vice Presidents, colleagues,

Around a week ago Armenia hosted an event co-organized by the Freedom House titled “Armenian Democratic Forum.”

In his opening speech Prime Minister Pashinyan stated that democracies around the world today share similar challenges one of them being the phenomenon when democratic tools and principles are used against democracy.

For years the regimes that existed in Armenia have tried to convince our people that democracy contains elements of weakness and that security is a priority for a warring country, hence rights and freedoms such as the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech, must be seconded to security.

After the 2018 democratic, non-violent, velvet revolution in Armenia security was constantly opposed to democracy by the same forces/ex regimes.

Strengthening of democratic institutions and the democratization processes have faced multiple challenges that complicated even further after the 2020 war launched by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno Karabakh. After the war the same ex regimes in Armenia tried to reinforce a false thesis of the need to choose between democracy and security, saying that when there was no democracy during their rule, there was no war, and that in a democracy, the country’s defense capacity has weakened. For months opposition political forces were calling for violence, staging political assassinations in the streets, (there was an assassination attempt towards the Speaker of the Parliament), and promoting a narrative that justified violence in general. During those months the police did not resort to use of force not even once.

Later snap parliamentary elections were held, which were assessed as free fair and transparent by virtually all the observers, also further reflected in the respective reports.

With this we registered that encroachments on democracy can only be prevented by even greater democracy, strengthening the democratic institutions by making them more transparent, more accountable. Today’s challenges that democracy faces in Armenia are closely related and are the legacy of the previous non-democratic corrupt regimes. Unfortunately, they cannot be overcome in a short time as they affect people’s thinking and it is difficult to get rid of ill practices easily. However, today we can state with certainty that in Armenia the most essential and the most important democratic institute is the institute of the citizen. The citizen who is the main beneficiary of democracy and at the same time the main actor in building and strengthening the democracy.

So, we believe that despite the complicated challenges we face, when there is political will, and I am quoting again Irene Charalambides, everything is possible.

And before I leave the floor let me express deepest gratitude to Ms. Annita Dimitriou and her team for the organization of this truly important conference and equally amazing conference in beautiful Cyprus, Lefkosia.” Hripsime Grigoryan noted at the end of her speech.