i'm out here lida. accused of terrorism. filmed over seven years. his quest for justice becomes a blueprint for national reconciliation. witness and innocent warrior on al-jazeera. and. you can. see if. you. take a step and reject saying. that. that was the running cry the hundreds of thousands of all medians in april and may did he took to the streets and forced the resignation of media's president turned prime minister said she cites use of those funds and from that they took his ruling republican policy

stepped down from power clearing the way for the leader of the opposition he called passion yet to be the new government this fall but if you do not accept that it gets much requirements of the states and good bye. to. the velvet revolution so they would be known by that as a remarkable turning point for the caucasus nation. missed a passion and he now heads it into rivet ministration assaults to capitalize on widespread public supports bring about sweeping reforms. didn't he has promised to tame the oligarchs monopolizing all medias politics and the economy holds you elections and transform armenia things with different democracy. at the same time he must play

a delicate balancing act geopolitically between russia and the west moscow provides economic and military support to all media which is being geographically isolated by tookie and does it by john. media it's a war are going to go in a car but region without supply john in the one nine hundred ninety s. . how does it break john wards it's internationally recognized territory but the conflict could break night into. a ribbon first year walker in europe i've come to the armenian capital to meet the man whose mass protest movement brought down an entrenched corrupt elite but he now faces the challenges from within his country and the old today i mean years prime minister. talks to al-jazeera. prime minister of armenia thank you for talking to al-jazeera i was here without

easier for those incredible few weeks in april and may of this year when the armenian people rose up in their hundreds of thousands and brought down the previous government this was something many people believed was impossible and it was done without a shot being fired what have you achieved so far your most important thing that we changed already it's the best segments of the day are all role of the people of any citizen it is most important change that we have done. because before evolution the most part of citizens they considered that they didn't.

decide anything that nothing depan from their position from his position. but maybe we make our citizens believe that their position their voice is more important factor in our political and social life and does most important change that we have already done but you've still got to deliver on those important reforms people want changes they want functioning utilities they want public services they want a reformed police service they want jobs how are you going to deliver these to a public that is hungry for change and based on the history there isn't an awful lot of patience of the revolution's people want it yesterday they don't have an awful lot of patience to wait around you need to implement those changes quickly we

are now in process of the involvement of new people to the armenian economy we are going to guarantee the equality and now we can't say that all people. all citizen in armenia are equal before the law we we are going to make economic reforms to liberalize our economy to make it more attractive for foreign investor and for domestic investor how we are going to do that we are going to guarantee. security of any investment we are going to create infrastructure wheat of high quality and we are going to make people believe and act in economy and

create their own businesses and to be to be. the really to have a real opportunity to become successful and make our country more successful you don't have a huge amount of foreign policy experience you're not a military man and yet your country has this conflict ongoing with its neighbor azerbaijan and your team of ministers even younger than yourself and you are just forty three years old so are you qualified for this position and for this job you know when in our parliament. republican deputies tried to show that. i'm not enough experienced to to be prime minister i recalled the

example of nesa mandela who was just a prisoner for twenty six years. before became president of the south african republic saw just. said that i'm was in politics in armenia from the nine hundred ninety one and i was the journalist that. brought so many articles on military. officials on state officials about the political activity and that was a huge university and hooch experience for being

politician for being minister for being. prime minister for being president because i forward all this people in i brought many articles what was right in their actions and what wasn't right in their action right now you're an interim government you need elections to have legitimacy when are those going to happen when you can have those elections if our political situation will stay saved as we have now i think we will have. elections snap elections. next year ok but initially you wanted snap elections and those are exactly snap elections it's a it's a year on from this revolution that's going to for

a straight people isn't it you need those elections soon and yes but are important to go to have a really democratic. towns pariente and free elections and the problem is that for other political activists it for certain expected to have such political changes and for there it is it is an expected situation and if you will we'll have a snap election now eight we vote to be not very equal situation for other political actors we don't want to. have an equal political field and we want to give our political opponent to our political opponents

a time for preparing for that elections it's been consistently maintained that this revolution was not a color revolution it was not manipulated or influenced by political forces outside the country but in order to carry out the reforms and changes that you need you are going to need significant financial assistance from the likes of the european union and the united states we hope to help with that financial. assistance not only from the united states european union but from russia as well you have been to russia twice in the last two months as far as i know you've been to sochi and moscow you've met with let me putin you've just got back from brussels how. are you going to balance that relationship between russia and the

west it is a difficult balancing act to maintain you have to agree that i don't think that there is a need to balance this relationship we are going to increase the quality of our relations not only with russia but also with the european union with united states with iran with the with china with india etc we ga and that we are going to build that relationship on the bears or of the national interests of armenia nevertheless you depend on russia strategically and economically but you are yourself in favor of openness in favor of transparency democracy and human rights these a european violence how do you stay on the right side of law to me putin you

know we saw. within our revolution that our partners i mean russia europe in hewing and. united states there are all international partners they respect how independence and also lengthy and they didn't interfere to our domestic affairs just a few days ago you had russian military to drills taking place. they have a military presence in armenia those drills were taking place armenian people were upset very upset by what happened it's a very difficult. situation to be in where support for russia is important to us i said strategically but at the same. russia russian military

representatives. have already apologize for that incident and i think it's an acceptable incident and i have announced that it was a provocation against the army or russian relationship and it was provocation against the armenian independence of armenia salinity of armenia and now there is investigation that started it and i think that who is guilty for that incident should be punished but this is an example of the ways in which it can be seen that moscow can use its influence on armenia when it needs to it has gazprom here we're not policing the energy market it garance to a security between armenia you know as

a by job but if the situation is that many contraries all around the war. they have tools to impact to influence on the other countries if we want to say absolutely there is no absolute independence for any country because all conflicts and international community now they are connected where you very closely and i mean in particular is in a very yes civil scituate yeah yeah most of my will is you know yes we have the we are in difficult situation and we are going to overcome this difficult situation and huge popular support from people that our government has we are going to

use that support for our common in this situation to manage the situation we are going to increase the quality of our relation with russia with that he will paint a union with united states well let's talk about your relationships with your immediate neighbors which perhaps is of even more critical importance turkey and azerbaijan armenia fought a war over the territory of nagorno-karabakh in the ninety's that conflict continues to this day albeit a frozen conflict as it's often referred to what are you doing to bring peace to this region between azerbaijan and armenia the first thing you did was go to the going to karabakh after becoming elected as prime minister perhaps that sent the right signal to armenians did it send the right signal to bark as any democracy we are devoted to exclusively peaceful solution for. conflict

and it's really important because. i'm sure that democracy. is more important factor to create peace in our region because i am sure that there is not any democracy that is willing. to. start a war. that is willing to use force for solution of any problems people are concerned as a boy john has seized some form of territory and knock each other on that important area between you and oh it's serious and it's it's it's wrong information if there's been some information they're talking water talk though it's a yes it's received language yes there it is another. topic

and i'm sure that after white. john became more aggressive after i mean you know revolution because you know that that we have a big success making armenia democratic country in fighting corruption. to create a level playing field to fight when no police and i think that. year has some fears that as a johnny people care in be inspired from our main. in to try. to create to make changes simular to changes in azerbaijan and saw i think that the increase of the aggressive

retore by the azerbaijani government is connected with this situation and i'm sure that as a by germany government is trying to distract the attention of his own people from their domestic troubles problem to the now go problem and so that's why i'm saying that any aggressive move against armenia it's aggressive move against democracy in our region at the same time what are you going to do to bring lasting peace here what are you prepared to give us by john back in exchange for lost in peace you know we are ready for peace negotiations and that i i want

to make clear that point and time are ready for. negotiations wheat president or was a by john. lear ready to meet him yes of course you've invited him to meet with you you know. problem is that we have negotiation for money. and donald trump doesn't mind breaking negotiation for months he's met with the president and you know you're in north korea no i don't think it's a legal right. to do to break something. when you aren't sure that you will be able to create something better and. you know that there is a negotiation for mutt. it's been in place for many years but nothing

has come out of it this format is very important for keeping peace and for creating real a real opportunity for a really peaceful settlement of now go knock out a conflict why because. three. werry important and very influential countries are involved in d. or a c. ms group chair for money that's russia that's france and that's united states and i think that this four month is able to solve this conflict peacefully if armenian government and as a journey government will have political will for peaceful solution i can assure you and all international community that as

any democratic government we have a real deal and a real desire to solve this conflict peacefully and we are ready for negotiation but i want to insist that we aren't going. to make anything in the atmosphere of intimidation you know it's really important to create a. atmosphere of peace in our region you can't hear any hate speech in armenia connected with azerbaijan and connected with azerbaijan the people but unfortunately every day we can hear hate speech from us that are by john to what armenia and what is really strange and where

the dangerous we can heard that speech from even personally from the president of. and with regards to turkey regardless of nagorno-karabakh in those or by john how are you going to get the borders reopened with turkey proper relations reestablished with ankara you know the problem is that it isn't armenia cool or the border with turkey in fact it's talking that close to border with army in fact that border is open from the armenian side and it's talking should make decision. on opening the border. and our main year is ready to establish

diplomatic relations with torquey without precondition. and without any precondition and that's that should make a decision and. with all of this happening at the moment with all of the international. infighting that's going on the european union and the united states do not have a good relationship at the moment liberal democracies in the west are in crisis with the rise of the far right russia and the united states have a troubled relationship though donald trump and me putin seem to be getting along just fine how do you see the the white house particular led by donald trump in terms of its impact on what happens to armenia and the armenian context do you look at what's happening in europe and the united states and think how does this impact armenia here of course.

we are concerned really much. on regional situation on the last development around iran because iran is our close neighbor and the whole partner and the we hope that all this issues and that all this disagreement will be solved toward the peace and through the negotiation and armenia is of course all ready to support this process is and we are ready to be constructive in making our region more prosperous and peaceful and the more secure. than prime minister of amin

thank you for talking to others in. an insider's perspective just six months ago we were at the brink of a war of the real donald trump i think he makes comments that he probably shouldn't make from the former trump campaign national security director tom was in a class all by himself and for the thirty years i've known donald he creates his own reality maybe his son goes head to head with j.d. coolidge and there has been no evidence that shows collusion if that's not collusion if that's not working with russian what is known al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. ever your. where were you when this idea popped into it when they're on line it's undoubtedly chief cold all over again inequality in our society today or if you join a sunset criminal justice system is dysfunctional right now this is a dialogue what does it feel like bring you to go back for the first time everyone has a voice and allow refugees to be the speakers for a change join the conversation on our and monday put it on. us and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of the days looking forward to full dry river beds like this one five years on the syrians

still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the war. but all men must come from the house of the martyr the resistance will continue until the occupation ends defiant words from a palestinian teenager to she's freed from an israeli jail. hello i'm adrian for the get this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up vote counting begins in cambodia after a vote but still not expected to trouble the prime minister. i didn't realize how much mike.