On January 29, 2019 Johannes Hahn, EU Commissioner for EU Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations met with Armenian civil society representatives, including TIAC Executive Director Sona Ayvazyan. During the meeting they discussed reform priorities for Armenia, participation of civil society in policy making and increasing civil society capacity and other key issues.

In October 2013, high level representatives of anti-corruption authorities as well as national planning authorities from the South, East and Southeast Asia and anticorruption experts from around the world who gathered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia adopted the famous document known as “Kuala Lumpur statement.” The statement outlined Guidelines for Anti-Corruption Strategies, addressing the process of adopting the strategies, the structure and content of the documents, as well as their monitoring and evaluation.

We expect that the anticorruption strategy and its adoption process will comply with the standards defined by Kuala Lumpur statement.

Draft Anticorruption Strategy of the Republic of Armenia and its implementation action plan 2019-2022 (hereafter referred to as the Draft) was posted on December 19, 2018 on www.e-draft.am, which is a unified website of the Ministry of Justice for publication of draft legal acts. The deadline for submitting comments and recommendations on the Draft was January 8, 2019. We would like to proclaim that the process of development of the Draft, as well as its structure and content are of great concern, on which our comments are stated below.  

We assess the 9 December 2018 National Assembly election of Armenia as a free and fair election in which the citizens of Armenia freely expressed their will. This free, fair, and competitive election—the first in about 23 years—marked a historic turning point and have immense value from a number of perspectives. Free and fair elections are a key achievement in democratization and proof of a society's political maturity and appreciation of the significance of voting.