Armenia needed transitional justice tools to improve its party system. These could have helped uncover violations in past elections and address political parties’ property of questionable origin, creating more equal conditions for political competition. This is the view of Gayane Abrahamyan, head of the For Equal Rights NGO.
“Armenia needs a new opposition; it needs a democratic opposition. We have been saying this since 2018,” Abrahamyan said. She emphasized that the opportunity to participate in elections alone is insufficient for new political forces to emerge. Their starting conditions when competing with established parties also matter.
In Abrahamyan’s assessment, unequal financial and property resources among new and previously established political forces are among the obstacles to improving the party system. New parties must compete with organizations that possess substantial funds and real estate, while establishing and maintaining regional party structures is expensive.
The issue of party property remains unresolved
Abrahamyan recalled that, while serving as a member of parliament in mid-2019, she sent an extensive package of documents to the prosecutor’s office concerning property held by the Republican Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Prosperous Armenia.
According to her, the questions concerned, in particular, the legality of the acquisition and privatization of numerous party-owned buildings in communities. They also concerned whether municipal property had been privatized at its actual value. “The prosecutor’s office did nothing about it at the time. I hope they can at least examine something now,” she said.
Abrahamyan believes examining such questions should have been part of improving the political landscape. She stressed that the issue was an appropriate state response to possible violations, rather than artificially clearing political space for other parties.
She noted that proceedings to confiscate assets of illicit origin are currently taking place, but they concern individuals rather than parties. Yet the origins and accumulation of parties’ property resources are also important to understanding the conditions of political competition.
Why transitional justice could have mattered
Abrahamyan believes transitional justice could have played a central role in improving the party system, because ordinary court proceedings could not resolve every problem inherited from the past.
She said that, since 1995, allegations and arguments concerning the theft of votes and the seizure of state power have accompanied electoral processes in Armenia. Over time, however, addressing such cases through legal channels became more difficult because of missing evidence and issues involving limitation periods.
“At some point, I think it became clear that moving forward through legal channels on this issue was almost impossible. There are quite a few problems: missing facts, questions of time limits and so on,” Abrahamyan said.
According to her, these limitations made more flexible transitional justice mechanisms necessary. Such mechanisms would extend beyond court proceedings, using other investigative tools to uncover problems, encourage public discussion and identify possible solutions.
“That is why we insisted on the use of transitional justice mechanisms: they are not exclusively a legal route, but also contain investigative and other elements that would have made it possible to bring problems to light, discuss them and find solutions together,” she said.
In Abrahamyan’s assessment, this process could also have contributed to reconciliation within society. Reconciliation would not necessarily have been limited to apologies. Political accountability for past events and exclusion from further political participation could also have been discussed.
She said transitional justice tools would have allowed solutions suited to different situations, rather than relying solely on court proceedings that, in many cases, could no longer take place.
Abrahamyan believes improving the party system must be considered in this context. Without addressing past problems, investigating possible violations and resolving questions of political accountability, it is difficult to create the conditions necessary for new democratic forces to emerge and establish themselves.