All admit that Armenia is facing social discontent and division of the public. Despite the leadership’s resoluteness to struggle against these phenomena, social tensions grow and the recent statements by the opposition demonstrate their intention to grab power on the wave of popular discontent.

Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan’s recent statement that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan plans legislative changes to involve Diaspora representatives in the Armenian parliament caused hot debates, dividing the Armenian public into supporters and opponents of the idea.

The recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have shown that social networks can have tremendous role in organization of political processes. Thanks to social networks, even under total media control by the authorities, the opposition forces managed to coordinate their protest actions and take millions of people to the streets to oust the rulers.

Political events in Armenia focused on the possible outcomes of the 2012 parliamentary election.

The arrival of representatives of rather obscure and marginal party – Powerful Turkey – in Yerevan has become a subject of close attention of the Armenian media and some experts rather than the RA National Security Service (NSS). Possibly, everything would have been normal – rather serious Turkish experts and political analysts arrive in Armenia often and nobody invites them to the NSS. But two representatives of Powerful Turkey were invited for a “conversation,” what has caused various comments. Definitely, the October 30 events in Yerevan were an evident PR action. However, it is unclear why Armenians have fallen for it.

The Council of Europe’s Forum for the Future of Democracy has hardly answered the main question – what will democracy look like in future.

The past week started with the arrival of Iranian delegation led by parliament speaker Ali Larijani.

The political week in Armenia started with appointment of Vladimir Gasparyan as Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia.

Chairman of the Social and Political Department at the Azerbaijani presidential administration, Ali Hasanov states that Baku has repeatedly applied to the OSCE and other international organizations, asking them to send an assessment mission to the territories around Nagorno Karabakh.

The report of the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry and Military Prosecutor’s Office on alleged suicide of Armenian captive Manvel Saribekyan has shocked the Armenian society, once again reminding Armenians of who their eastern neighbor is. The Armenian pogroms in Azerbaijan and cruel murder of Armenian officer Gurgen Margaryan showed of what the racist authorities of Azerbaijan are capable. It is hard to trust the version of the Armenian captive’s suicide after all this.