Artak Zeynalyan presents achievements of post-revolutionary Armenia at meeting with high-ranking officials in South Korea

Today, within the scope of the visit to Seoul, the capital of South Korea, Acting Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan delivered a speech at the Open Government Partnership, Asia-Pacific Regional Meeting.

Artak Zeynalyan expressed gratitude to the OGP for inviting the Armenian delegation to the meeting, as well as to the Republic of Korea for organising the important event.

Touching upon the events that took place in Armenia in the spring of 2018, the Acting Minister viewed them as unprecedented and historic and noted that, during those days, the Armenian people exercised their direct right to power through a velvet, peaceful and non-violent revolution.

"In April-May, citizens of Armenia took to the streets and squares to fulfil their dream of having a better country, a country where the principles of rule of law, human rights protection and democracy would really be materialised. As a result, in May of this year, the parliamentary factions of Armenia supported the peaceful change of power, and a Government was formed based on agreement. And today, I, as a member of the Government formed by the people, have assumed the great responsibility to materialise and realise the positive energy that could be felt on the streets and at the squares of Armenia in the spring of this year,” Artak Zeynalyan said. According to the Acting Minister, turning the victorious revolution of our nation into institutional reforms is required as a major step and must gain momentum after the upcoming elections, meaning all the leverages of the public administration system must also be revolutionised and transformed.

According to Artak Zeynalyan, continuous engagement of the public in the changes and in the restructuring of the system is strongly required. According to him, the tactical tools used during the revolution should also be used during the implementation of reforms, including in the period of setting simple and achievable goals within specific time limits and in the period of the broadest involvement of the society in the ongoing revolution, with clearly stated short-term and strategic tasks and with the purpose of keeping the public as the main driving force of the ongoing revolution.

"It is necessary to create a system of governance that will meet the expectations, providing the public with a list of realistic changes and with realistic time limits. This is important, as many people expect ideal decisions and exclusively positive results, and this is very binding," Artak Zeynalyan said, attaching importance to the direct participation and support of civil society and business in and to the reforms taking place in the country.

The Acting Minister also set aside another major factor contributing to the materialisation and realisation of the energy that existed during the revolution that took place in Armenia, and that is the policy that the Government has adopted to be accountable to the public, transparent and act openly. Artak Zeynalyan noted that during the days of the revolution and after the formation of the Government based on agreement, social networks had a great role and significance in terms of ensuring public accountability and transparency of the revolutionary forces and the Government, and this essentially contributed to the strengthening of the power of the people and to the development of democracy in Armenia, as well as helped to transmit the positive energy in the struggle on the streets to the system of governance and to ensure direct participation of the people in the reforms being implemented.

At the end of his speech, the Acting Minister emphasised that the Government was trying to turn the positive energy of the struggle into direct participation of the society in the process of governing through the ongoing introduction of innovative electronic democracy tools.

Within the scope of the visit, Acting Minister of Justice of the Republic of Armenia Artak Zeynalyan had meetings with Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of South Korea Mun Hye San, Representative of the Staff of the President Lee Yongsan, Chief Executive Officer of the Open Government Partnership Sanjay Pradhan, Minister of Internal Affairs and Security of South Korea Kim Boo-kyum, Chief of Staff-Minister of the Government of the Republic of Mongolia Gombojavyn Zandanshatar, Minister of Justice of Kyrgyzstan Marat Dzamankulov, as well as representatives of Georgia. A number of issues on bilateral co-operation were discussed during the meeting.