Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan visited the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin, where he had a meeting with representatives of political, social and expert circles, participated in the discussion "Security and Stability in the South Caucasus. Armenia's Perspective".
"Dear friends,
I would like to stress that the EU is one of our key partners on our democratic reforms path. In this context, it is worth to mention that Germany is a major political and economic partner for Armenia providing development aid and support for our domestic reforms.
Continuing the topic of cooperation with the EU, I would like to inform you of a new important format of the Armenia-EU partnership agenda – The Political and Security dialogue, the inaugural meeting of which took place in Yerevan last January. The discussion on a wide range of issues, including the overall regional situation and the prospects of deepening our collaboration in certain areas was not only timely but also considerably enriched our diverse partnership agenda with the EU.
In this context I would like to stress that the basis for our cooperation with EU is democracy. And according to the latest "Index of the General Assessment of Eastern Partnership Member States", Armenia topped the "Democracy and Good Governance" rating table among the EaP member countries and is a leader in the following 5 areas: fight against corruption, an independent judiciary, opinion and freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association, independent media and democratic rights, elections and political pluralism.
Despite all the challenges, we do believe that our security architecture cannot be comprehensive without respect for human rights, rule of law and democracy. Democracy is a strategy for us. We will keep up reforms aimed at strengthening rule of law, consolidating good governance and fighting against corruption, aiming to ensure prosperity for our people.
The 2018 democratic revolution, followed by 2018 and 2021 snap parliamentary elections proved that Armenia’s democratic development path is irreversible. In this regard, 2021 parliamentary elections were exceptional: it was first case when election in Armenia served as a tool for overcoming the political crisis. I mean internal political crisis that we had after the 44 days’ war of 2020. Usually elections sparked political crisis in our country and it was the case from 1994 to 2018.
But this page is closed after the democratic revolution of 2018, and Armenia now is an internationally recognized democratic country. However, recent security challenges raise serious question the following question - whether democracy can provide security.
Whether Armenian democracy is able to provide security - this is the question that rightfully worries the Armenian society today and an issue to be addressed by our government.
Thank you for attention.”