Results 2015: Armenia

By tradition, at the end of the year Vestnik Kavkaza sums up achievements of the countries of the region: what they have msnsged to achieve over the past year in the political and economic spheres, and they failed to achieve. Today, our experts speak about results of 2015 in Armenia.

Armenian political scientist, director general of Caucasus Institute Aleksander Iskandaryan told in an interview with a VK correspondent that 2015 was a quite significant year for Armenia.

"First of all, I would note the changes in the Constitution of the country. The referendum on the adoption of amendments to the basic law of Armenia took place in December 2015. In fact, it is actually a new constitution. It contains significant changes in the political system of the country in respect of turning from the semi-Republic of Armenia to the parliamentary republic. It will lead to quite serious changes.

Speaking about the economic results of the year, the political scientist noted that there is neither a significant development, or a serious fall.

In general, oil prices continue to decline in the current situation in terms of the global crisis and oil prices are tied with prices for many goods and products, including metals. Armenia produces metals, but there are some problems with investments in the country that is why stagnation is taking place in this case. We cannot say that Armenia is actively developing, but there is also no strong fall," the director of Caucasus Institute said.

In conclusion, Alexander Iskandaryan pointed out again that the constitutional referendum was the main political event in the political field of Armenia over the past year.

In an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza Secretary of the parliamentary faction of the opposition party Armenian National Congress (ANC) Aram Manukyan was more skeptical in assessing the results of 2015, calling it hopeless and futile.

"The year was hopeless year and futile because the event that took place on  December 6th was very sad. We have all the videos where about 120 violations were fixed. There were a lot of falsifications. The worst thing is that Armenia won't have President elected by the people anymore. This is one of the biggest negative things of the past year. What else? The situation around Karabakh is very tense, only negative events.72 people were killed during the year. 42 of them were killed at the border and about 30 soldiers were killed not only at the border, but also in place where they were on duty. The next is the national debt above $ 5 billion. It is more than 50% of GDP. I cannot remember any good things,'' the deputy said.