Armenia’s difficult search for (more) democracy

Once upon time the Caucasian kingdom was the world’s first Christian nation. Today the post-Soviet state is struggling with many hardships. Yet, there are people trying hard to make democracy work. When I was child, people across Europe used to send questions to ‘Radio Yerevan’. These questions, formulated as a joke, always got an answer, starting with “In principle yes...“ or “In principle no..." followed by explanations saying the contrary. During Communist times, these jokes were a way of challenging the official ‘truth’ and to circumvent the state censorship. I came to think about these jokes, when I recently visited Armenia for the first time. In my head, the following question arose: “Dear Radio Yerevan is there a democratic future for the Caucasus, this mountainous border region between Europe and Asia?” I asked this while sitting in a taxi from the airport to downtown Yerevan in the middle of the night – as the direct flights to and from Western Europe were ...