Thomas de Waal: Serzh Sargsyan`s step is worthy of respect

ArmInfo."A month ago, when I was in Armenia, I had an opinion that there changes are possible only "from above." But I was mistaken: what happened could be called a  "storm," said a senior researcher of the US expert- analytical center "Carnegie Europe Foundation" Thomas de Waal. He also noted that "Armenia is a classic example of a society that is so unfree that people are annoyed, but so free that they have the opportunity to protest, it's not Russia," he stated.

"An important fact is that there is no systemic opposition in  Armenia, there are a lot of urban youth who are not members of any  party," the expert said, emphasizing that the biggest problem today  is the "dinosaurs" of the RPA in the National Assembly.

According to him, in Armenia, as in Russia, Ukraine or Azerbaijan,  the problem lies in the merging of big politics and big business.  "Thus, new elections are extremely necessary, but the opposition does  not have a structure or a party around which one can unite," de Waal  said.

Speaking about the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan, he stressed that  this step is worthy of respect. "He's not Yanukovich," de Waal said.  He also draws parallels between the resignation of Sargsyan and the  resignation of Ter-Petrosyan in 1998, to which Sargsyan himself  contributed. "The first president of Armenia said that he does not  want to repeat the example of Gamsakhurdia and wants to leave  peacefully." So did Sargsyan," the expert recalled. -