The Political System of Armenia

Form and Content

Author(s): David Petrosyan
Editor(s): Iris Kempe, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Lili Di Puppo
Series: Caucasus Analytical Digest (CAD)
Issue: 17
Pages: 8-12
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Jefferson Institute, Washington D.C.; Heinrich Böll Foundation, Tbilisi; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen
Publication Year: 2010

Despite a promising start in the early 1990s, Armenia's political system has devolved toward authoritarianism. The terrorist attack on the Armenian National Assembly on October 27, 1999, resulting in the killing of the speaker and prime minister, ultimately made it possible for President Robert Kocharyan to concentrate power in his hands. He subsequently ignored a Constitutional Court ruling and held a variety of elections that were neither free nor fair. Under Kocharyan and his successor Serzh Sargsyan, Armenia is largely ruled by a clan that gained power during the 1992-94 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Currently, Armenia's three presidents, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Kocharyan, and Sargsyan, define the three poles within the political system.

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