Internal political and systemic issues of Armenia, from the perspective of political analyst Mikayel Zolyan

There is such a stereotype, I would say myth, that the parliamentary system is more democratic. Political analyst Mikayel Zolyan continues explaining how this stereotype has been formed. “First of all, most European countries have a parliamentary system. Secondly, when post-Soviet republics turned to democracy, the presidential model was chosen in most of them. And as we see, in most of these countries, democracy has not proven to be successful, and many have accused the presidential model,” the political analyst says.

As to Armenia's transition to the parliamentary system, according to Zolyan, two factors coincide here. “First, Serzh Sargsyan's personal interests, that he wanted to remain in power. We do not know why, maybe because he is afraid that mistakes he made will be revealed, maybe because he thinks that Armenia will perish without him. It is not a joke, people, who have been in office for many years, usually undergo some psychological changes. And this is a widespread phenomenon in an authoritarian system, when a person is convinced that when he leaves, the entire system will be destroyed,” says Zolyan.

Find the details concerning the second factor, country's opposition, presidential candidate Armen Sargsyan's role and significance, and the domestic political developments in general in the program “Paradigm”.