Article
Thomas de Waal, Areg Kochinyan, Zaur Shiriyev
{
"authors": [
"Thomas de Waal"
],
"type": "legacyinthemedia",
"centerAffiliationAll": "dc",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"Carnegie Europe"
],
"collections": [
"Europe’s Eastern Neighborhood"
],
"englishNewsletterAll": "ctw",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Europe",
"programAffiliation": "EP",
"programs": [
"Europe"
],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"Russia",
"Europe",
"Eastern Europe",
"Caucasus",
"Armenia",
"Iran"
],
"topics": [
"Democracy"
]
}
Source: Getty
In The Media
Armenia’s Fight Over the Rule of Law Has Echoes Across the Region
While several post-Soviet countries such as Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine now routinely hold free and fair elections, another democratic pillar—rule of law—has proved much more difficult to achieve.
Published on Mar 3, 2020
Source: World Politics Review
If you thought judicial appointments were an explosive issue in the United States, just look at Armenia, where over the past year, the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has declared war on Armenia’s senior judges. Most recently, Pashinyan has called a popular referendum for April 5 to remove seven of the nine judges on the Constitutional Court, whom he accuses of blocking his reform agenda.The government sees this as a last-ditch measure to clean up a corrupt justice system that Pashinyan inherited from former President Serzh Sargsyan. For the judges, it is an assault by politicians on the rule of law. In an unusual statement last month, the president of the Venice Commission, the Council of Europe’s venerable advisory body on constitutional law, called on both sides “to exercise restraint and to de-escalate this worrying situation in order to ensure the normal operation of the constitution of Armenia.”
Read Full Text
This article was originally published by World Politics Review.
About the Author
Thomas de Waal
Senior Fellow, Carnegie Europe
De Waal is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, specializing in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.
- Rewiring the South Caucasus: TRIPP and the New Geopolitics of Connectivity
- Europolis, Where Europe EndsCommentary
Thomas de Waal
Recent Work
More Work from Carnegie China
- Is China Willing to Influence Russia on the Ukraine War?Commentary
Beijing is trying to navigate the overall situation regarding Ukraine, especially the substance of interactions between Washington and Moscow.
- +1
Ellen Nakashima, Zhao Long, Pavlo Klimkin, …
- The Challenges Behind China’s Global South PoliciesCommentary
While China will remain a significant political and economic force in the Global South, its ambition to leverage the Global South as a counterbalance to the United States and the Global North is far from assured.
Xue Gong
- Beyond the Putin-Kim Alliance: How Can the International Community Engage China to Contain Nuclear Risks Over the Korean Peninsula?Commentary
Faced with an increase in strategic maneuvering by Moscow and Pyongyang, Beijing will not sit idly by and allow Putin and Kim to shape the security environment on its behalf.
Tong Zhao
- What Does Xi Jinping Want From Central Asia?Commentary
China’s growing attention to Central Asia is perceived as a harbinger of tectonic shifts in regional geopolitics.
Temur Umarov
- China-Europe Relations, Two Years After Russia Invaded UkraineCommentary
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is a turning point in the EU-China relationship, and evolution of the China-Russia relationship will continue to impact EU-China relations.
Yifan Ding, Alice Ekman
