Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the panel discussion titled “The Quality of Democracy in Armenia: Challenges and Assessment Indicators” within the framework of the fourth Armenian Forum for Democracy.

In his speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan welcomed the attendees and emphasized the importance of holding such forums. Answering the question of what is the democratic ideal that he strives for during his administration, the Prime Minister suggested changing the relationship with the words “dream”, “future”, “ideal”. “Why should we dream about democracy, if we can discuss it today, create and build it. In other words, we constantly dream, what do we dream about?”

Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that there are questions that need to be addressed: do all participants in our democracy want democracy, is love for people a value for them, and who is the leader of democracy in Armenia today, the defender and bearer of democratic values. "In this case, we have an exceptional situation where the bearer of these values is the government. Including, with the recent political, ideological, conceptual changes and questionings, we are opening a wider field for democracy," the Prime Minister said, emphasizing in that context the importance of voicing and discussing all existing questions.

According to the Prime Minister, the most important feature of democracy is self-reflection. “Where there is no self-reflection, there is no democracy. And I think we need to talk about our standard of democracy: what is democracy, how do we imagine it?”

Answering the question of whether he can name important reforms to achieve ideal democracy in Armenia, the Prime Minister noted: “Yes, I can, it is the adoption of the new Constitution, where the most important institutional issue that needs to be resolved, in my opinion, is the creation of an organic connection between the judiciary and the people. I have said that power belongs to the people and any power should emanate from the people. Today, I see a serious systemic problem that the judiciary in the Republic of Armenia does not emanate from the people. The judiciary not only does not emanate from the people, but is also completely cut off from the people and has no organic connection with them.”

In this regard, the Prime Minister emphasized the fact that certain changes and proposals are being generated in the context of the new Constitution, which should seriously solve this problem. "The other proposal was generated in the political team. It is about introducing the institute of jury trials in Armenia, so that we can finally get rid of this problem. Unless we solve this issue, we will not solve many fundamental issues. In my opinion, the biggest problem of our democracy is here," said Nikol Pashinyan, emphasizing the need to create a standard of justice that will make justice as predictable as possible and less exploitable for various political interests.

According to the Prime Minister, the adoption of the new Constitution should also create an organic connection between the people and the legal system. "Since 1995, no "50+1" percent of people have voted in favor of today's Constitution in any constitutional referendum. This is a political issue, but there is also an organic issue here: the people do not consider the legal system established in Armenia to be their own. The people do not consider that they have reached an agreement that we live by these rules in our domestic life," said Nikol Pashinyan, adding that without this reform we will not be able to solve these problems, including institutional ones.

During the panel discussion, the Prime Minister also answered other questions from those present.