Former envoy claims Armenian government seeking to neutralize opposition to advance constitutional changes

A former Armenian ambassador has accused the country's government of seeking to weaken the political opposition in order to secure the parliamentary support needed to implement sweeping constitutional changes, while alleging that the administration is carrying out commitments to unnamed Western actors.

In an interview with Panorama.am on Tuesday, former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Dzyunik Aghajanyan claimed that Armenia's current leadership was brought to power by "Western global centers" and alleged that Turkey and Azerbaijan had been chosen as instruments to advance their regional agenda.

Aghajanyan alleged that the country's leadership has obligations it cannot avoid fulfilling and said those commitments explain its pursuit of a constitutional supermajority in parliament.

According to Aghajanyan, the government seeks to pass constitutional amendments that would fundamentally transform Armenia's political system. She argued that the proposed changes would effectively dismantle the Third Republic of Armenia "ideologically, substantively, factually and in terms of its existing borders," replacing it with what an "amorphous Fourth Republic."

She also criticized a shift from defining the state around the Armenian people to a broader concept of citizenship, arguing that such an approach would allow people of any background to be included under the term "citizen."

Aghajanyan further alleged that the government is attempting to "neutralize" the opposition as part of efforts to fulfill those commitments within a specified timeframe. She claimed that the timetable is linked to developments involving Iran and Russia.