It is necessary to achieve reforms by amending the Constitution since most of our problems are due to the fact that the Constitution is not right. This is what President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian stated in an interview with El Pais.

“After the reforms made in the Constitution in 2015, Armenia made the transition to a system of governance of Prime Minister, not parliamentary system of governance. To make the right decision, it is necessary to take responsibility. By the existing Constitution, the Prime Minister has all the rights, but is only accountable to the parliament, that is, he is accountable to himself since he has a majority in parliament. The parliament can’t work effectively when there is no culture of parliamentary institutions, and this is the case in Armenia,” he said.

Asked what amendment has to be made to the Constitution, Sarkissian said the following: “Armenia has been a part of the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. Later, Armenia became a presidential republic. In addition, we Armenians are Christians and always want to have a savior, and this is also seen in our attitude towards politicians. From the perspective of culture, presidential governance will be understood better than parliamentary governance. European institutions urged Armenia to enhance parliamentary democracy, but in reality, most people in Armenia don’t understand this. This will be my mission for the next few years. However, even in the case of presidential governance, Armenia needs to balance this with a strong parliament, the deputies of which must represent specific people and cities.”