YEREVAN, DECEMBER 19, ARMENPRESS. The Washington Post has included Armenia in its “Three countries where democracy actually staged a comeback in 2018” article by contributing columnist Frida Ghitis.

The two other countries are Ethiopia and Peru, where drastic domestic changes have also taken place.

Referring to Armenia, the Washington Post notes that the country has experiences a “dramatic turnaround”.

“When President Serzh Sargsyan, already in office for a decade, staged a power grab by changing the constitution and becoming prime minister, the journalist-turned-activist Nikol Pashinyan leveraged the people’s anger to drastically change the country’s direction. Pashinyan led a massive march followed by crippling demonstrations, paralyzing the country until the parliament — which had named Sargsyan prime minister — finally relented. The nonviolent people power of Armenians forced Sargsyan to resign and persuaded legislators to name Pashinyan prime minister. But the biggest shift was still to come.

A week ago, Armenians elected a new parliament, handing Pashinyan’s bloc an astonishing 70 percent of the vote. The previous ruling party, Sargsyan’s Republicans, didn’t even manage the 5 percent minimum required to enter parliament. Bolstered by the vote of confidence, Pashinyan has now launched a comprehensive anti-corruption campaign aimed at cleaning up the system of government.

These countries and their leaders still face dangerous obstacles ahead along the path to a durable liberal democracy. Their experiments could still fail. But the very fact that they have managed to make meaningful democratic strides against such steep odds should give encouragement to those battling the forces of damaging corruption and creeping authoritarianism in other places”, the columnist writes.

Caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s My Step Alliance has won a landslide victory in the December 9 general election with more than 70% of votes.

Earlier The Economist named Armenia the Country of the Year.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan