After first being covered in the blogosphere, Bruce Tasker’s allegations of corruption in a World Bank project in Armenia have now hit international headlines with the U.K.’s The Observer carrying a story today. Interestingly, Tasker approached local Armenian media outlets such as Armenia Now and Hetq Online, as well as local NGOs such as the Center for Regional Development/Transparency International Armenia (CRD/TI Armenia), with these allegations just before the May parliamentary election, but none followed up on the hundreds of pages of evidence that Tasker says he has.

Frustrated, in lieu of any media outlet here interested in the allegations, Tasker then set up his own blog to disseminate the information he had instead. Tasker also approached this blog and after assessing the documents he provided, Oneworld Multimedia concluded that this story should be presented to the public. An email to the World Bank office in Yerevan was less than adequately responded to, and the response from the Washington-based Government Accountability Project (GAP) backed up Tasker not only with regards to his allegations, but also in further claims of blacklisting by the international banking organization.

Hetq Online eventually covered the allegations in August, albeit only after reading posts made on this blog first, but an English translation was never made available to a non-Armenian speaking audience. At any rate, Tasker’s allegations were only covered by the online publication after it was first exposed on his own blog as well as this one. Highlighting the importance of bloggers in reporting such stories, Notes from Hairenik, Martuni or Bust, and Nazarian also covered the story that was otherwise ignored by media outlets and local NGOs perhaps too dependent on foreign donors.

Anyway, my article for New Internationalist will be published in the November edition of the magazine, but in the meantime, The Observer’s Economics Editor, Heather Stewart, also covers the story.

Britain is urging the World Bank to investigate allegations of corruption and embezzlement in a $35m (£17m) water project in Armenia, which the Washington-based body says are only of ‘medium priority’. Bruce Tasker, a British whistleblower, says he has presented the bank with evidence of large-scale fraud in a project to improve the water supply in the Armenian capital Yerevan, but it has so far refused to carry out a full-blown investigation.

With its conciliatory new boss Robert Zoellick at the helm, the World Bank is keen to make a fresh start after the humiliating departure of Paul Wolfowitz earlier this year. Wolfowitz stormed into the bank promising to crack down on corruption, but ended up being embroiled in an ethics scandal of his own concerning lavish pay rises for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.

Persuading the world’s richest countries that their taxpayers’ money is being well spent is a critical part of Zoellick’s job, but the Armenian case is just one of a backlog of allegations waiting to be examined by the Bank’s Institutional Integrity Department - or INT, as it is known.

INT wrote to Washington-based pressure group the Government Accountability Project (Gap), which is backing Tasker’s claims, saying the case was ‘rank ordered “medium” priority, and as such remains in a queue pending the availability of investigative resources’.

The British Ambassador in Armenia has written to the World Bank, urging it to carry out a full investigation.

‘We’ve run into a wall,’ said Gap’s director, Bea Edwards. ‘We have extensive documentation. It involves high-level government officers, a lot of money and basic services. What else do they want? They’ve been completely unhelpful.’

She says the Armenian case is important, because it could point to potential problems in the way other World Bank projects are run, particularly in the former Soviet Union.

Tasker is a British engineer appointed by an Armenian parliamentary commission investigating the Yerevan scheme. He claims that as soon as he began to examine the details of the project, it became clear that it was riddled with corruption, ‘from start to finish, from top to bottom. The fact is it was not an isolated case of a few thousand dollars here or there, it was tens of millions of dollars.’

The original purpose of the project was to repair Yerevan’s pipelines, and improve the water supply to households, but he says that by the time the work got under way it had shifted to installing water meters instead.

Tasker claims contractors were able to pocket up to $10 profit on the sale of each meter by charging customers for installation. His commission was told that the average number of water meters per customer was 1.5.

[…]

Jeff Powell, of pressure group the Bretton Woods project, said it was still too often left to politicians to decide which allegations to pursue. ‘This case is indicative of the fact that senior management and the board of the World Bank have not taken seriously the issue of corruption,’ he said.

A World Bank spokesman said he would not comment on a specific case.

(more…)

A1 Plus reports that the former and first president Levon Ter Petrosian met earlier today with representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutiun. The meeting is a surprise given the fact that Dashnaktsutiun was outlawed under Ter Petrosian. Senior party officials were arrested and newspapers closed.

Nevertheless, Dashnaktsutiun has also recently stated that during his tenure as president when they were in opposition, ideology at least existed in politics here. A1 Plus reports that both Ter Petrosian and Dashnaktsutiun agree on this point. In fact, with the acquisition of wealth being the main preoccupation of those in the political sphere, few would disagree.

On 29th of September in “Simon Vracyan” Center of Dashnaktsutyun party representative of the ARF Office Armenia Hrant Margaryan and the representative of “Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Body ” Armen Rustamian met Levon Ter-Petrosyan Aleksandr Arzumanyan. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was the initiator of the meeting. They discussed issues connected with internal political situation in Armenia and issues concerning coming presidential elections. Both parties found ideological-political debate necesary at this stage of development.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.

Sarsang, Mardakert Region, Republic of Nagorno Karabakh © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2001

Via Blogrel, the BBC reports that journalists from Armenia and Azerbaijan are working on a project which “brings them together to make short documentary films.” It sounds like a very interesting project indeed.

The shared background for all the film-makers is what Laurence Broers, an expert on the South Caucasus with conflict resolution group Conciliation Resources, describes as the “massive mutual expulsions” caused by the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

[…]

Twenty-year-old Suzanna Seyranyana, a Karabakh foreign language student, was apprehensive about meeting Azeris through the project.

“Before, I thought that the Azeris were our enemies, I never thought I’d be able to sit down with them, to have a cup of tea and a chat, but during the project I met Azeris for the first time and they’ve become my friends. I didn’t feel any barriers between us,” she said.

“I realised that it is not our fault,” she continued. “People aren’t guilty - neither Azeris nor Armenians. It was war. It feels like a dream, sitting with them, talking to them.”

[…]

Vafa Farajova, a bright-eyed 31-year-old Azeri teacher and journalist explained: “We have forgotten our childhood and school-years.”

But she still has vivid memories of abandoning her home in Zangelan, one of seven districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh occupied by Armenian forces during the conflict.

“When we fled, all the routes to Baku were closed, all the districts were occupied by Armenians so we had to escape across the river, via Iran,” she said.

“We left everything - our home, everything… We didn’t take my clothes, my pictures, my dresses or shoes. I felt awful, I cried. I kept asking God ‘Why? Why?’ Armenians and Azerbaijanis had had such good relations. Every day, every hour, I asked ‘Why?’ Nobody answered me.”

[…]

Sevak Hayrapetyan, a 26-year-old Armenian student, nonetheless says he hopes the films may help increase understanding between Azeris and Armenians.

“The war was incomprehensible for me,” he says.

“I don’t know if this project will help end the stalemate but these are at least small steps.”

The full news item is here.

Ararat Zurabian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

In what still remains the most talked about event in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, allies of former President Levon Ter Petrosian say they are confident that he will run. And even if some paradoxically allege that Ter Petrosian’s possible nomination is being masterminded by the current authorities, those pushing Ter Petrosian’s candidacy are very definitely opposition.

This includes Impeachment’s Nikol Pashinian, Republic’s Aram Sarkisian, and the People’s Party’s Stepan Demirchian as well as senior members of HHSh. RFE/RL has more.

“Levon Ter-Petrosian’s nomination [as a presidential candidate] is irreversible. That is, it will definitely happen,” said Ararat Zurabian, chairman of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh), the former ruling party of the ex-president is the unofficial top leader.

“As the first president said, he has not yet made a final decision [to contest the vote,]” Zurabian told reporters. “But I believe things are moving towards that decision.”

[…]

Aram Sarkisian, whose radical opposition Hanrapetutyun party also strongly backs Ter-Petrosian, made a similar point in an interview with RFE/RL. He claimed that Ter-Petrosian, who led Armenia to independence in 1991, is popular enough to return to power.

“Our contacts with the public show that a huge section of Armenia’s population thinks that if a prudent, pragmatic person like Ter-Petrosian … decides to stand, he will win,” said Sarkisian. “I am convinced that the day after the statement by the first president [on his nomination] scores of people will converge on the Yerevan square with flags,” he added.

[…]

Both the HHSh and Hanrapetutyun regard Ter-Petrosian as the only politician capable of thwarting a planned handover of power from Kocharian to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. They hope that other major opposition groups will also rally around the ex-president. But so far only one of them, the People’s Party (HZhK) of Stepan Demirchian, has been ready to consider doing that.

Demirchian, who was Kocharian’s main challenger in the last presidential election, denied on Wednesday some Ter-Petrosian associates’ claims that his endorsement of the ex-president is a forgone conclusion. “As long as the first president has not announced his nomination, the HZhK can not decide to support him,” he told RFE/RL.

Still, Demirchian made it clear that he has a high regard for Ter-Petrosian while agreeing with much of the criticism of Armenia’s former leadership. “Let us not forget that the country was at war then,” he said. “There were mistakes, very negative phenomena, manifestations of irresponsibility and impunity. But those negative phenomena are now much more deeply rooted in our life.”

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.

It looks as though the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is now out and if this chart is anything to go by it appears to be official. Corruption is lower in Georgia than Armenia. According to what I assume is the 2007 CPI, Armenia scored 3.0 on a scale of 1-10 and is at 99th in the list of 179 countries while Georgia scored 3.4 and is at 79th.

Last year, Armenia and Georgia had scores of 2.9 and 2.8 respectively. Azerbaijan doesn’t fare well at all and has a CPI of 2.1, down 3 points since 2006. Armenia’s other neighbours, Turkey and Iran, score 4.1 and 2.5. Want to invest in the South Caucasus? Looks like Georgia is the place to be.

Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Four days after Ter Petrosian’s first major public speech since being forced to leave office in 1998, the ante in the run up to the 2008 presidential election has already been raised. In what could be seen as sign that the current authorities take the prospect of Ter Petrosian’s return to politics very seriously indeed, President Robert Kocharian has responded very publicly to accusations made last Friday by his predecessor.

Whatever the reasons, Kocharian makes some powerful counter claims which indicate that the 2008 presidential election will be as much a reflection on the past 16 years of independence as well as about who will follow him as president early next year. RFE/RL reports the gloves are now well and truly off.

Kocharian dismissed the accusations by pointing to Armenia’s robust economic growth that has averaged 13 percent per annum since 2002. “Today Armenia is one of the fastest developing countries in the world,” he said in remarks broadcast by state television. “The most effective reforms are being implemented in Armenia. And if those characterizations [made by Ter-Petrosian] really applied to Armenia, we would never have such success.”

Kocharian also cited a substantial increase in government spending over the past decade. “I became prime minister of Armenia in March 1997 and inherited a $300 million [state] budget with a deficit of about $40 million,” he said. “Next year, Armenia will have a budget worth about $2.5 billion. Just compare [the two figures].”

“One has to be extremely self-isolated in order not to see what has happened in the country,” he added in a jibe at the extremely low profile kept by Ter-Petrosian since his resignation in 1998.

Kocharian went on to emphasize that he has until now avoided publicly attacking his predecessor out of respect for independent Armenia’s first president. He indicated that he will no longer restrain himself if Ter-Petrosian decides to contest the forthcoming presidential elections.

[…]

The government-controlled Armenian Public Television reacted to Ter-Petrosian’s speech at the weekend with a scathing report that accused the country’s former leadership of mismanaging the economy, rigging elections and being responsible for several high-profile killings of the early 1990s. Some pro-Ter-Petrosian papers hit back on Tuesday by a citing an even longer list of such killings, including the October 1999 terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament, committed during Kocharian’s rule.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.

Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

With speculation that the former first president, Levon Ter Petrosian, might enter the fray for next year’s election, his bitter foes, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutiun (ARF-D) have responded to Friday’s speech given on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of Armenia’s independence. As has been mentioned on this blog before, although Ter Petrosian’s criticism of the current system might strike a note with much of the population, critics argue that today’s problems first materialized during his tenure as president. RFE/RL has more.

Reacting to the speech, Vahan Hovannisian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader and deputy parliament speaker, said Ter-Petrosian has no moral right to make such accusations because his eight-year rule was also marked by fraudulent elections, human rights abuses and other serious shortcomings.

“He spoke as if the population has already forgotten Levon Ter-Petrosian’s days in power — political repressions, the severe economic crisis that must not be linked with the war [with Azerbaijan,] and the terrible atmosphere that led to a massive emigration,” Hovannisian told RFE/RL.

“There are definitely vicious phenomena existing in the country now, and Dashnaktsutyun has always been the first to talk about them without hysteria characteristic of some opposition circles,” he said. “We are conscious at the same time that the roots of those problems date back to Levon Ter-Petrosian’s rule.”

Dashnaktsutyun, which is a junior partner in the ruling coalition, was in strong opposition to Ter-Petrosian and his Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) throughout his presidency, which began in 1991 and ended in 1998. The nationalist party was controversially banned in 1994 for allegedly violating Armenian law and operating a secret death squad. The ban also led to the forcible closure of newspapers controlled by Dashnaktsutyun.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.

(more…)

Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Despite Friday’s unprecedented speech by the first president, and one that some are already taking as marking the start of his election campaign, there is surprisingly little reaction to the effective return of Levon Ter Petrosian to political life here. However, what little there is can at least be considered informative and the grounds on which to initiate real reflection on Ter Petrosian’s tenure as president.

It also gives us all a chance to consider how Armenia has developed since Ter Petrosian was forced to resign and leave office in 1998. However, what is particularly interesting is how local Armenians who can remember that time view Ter Petrosian’s possible candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. Perhaps the most thought provoking is one by Artmika at Unzipped.

I remember his presidency back then. Let’s make it this way, I WANT to remember the first couple of years of his presidency. I felt like living in a democratic country. It was so exciting, you could just feel freedom out there… I had big hopes that at last my dream of seeing Armenia as democratic country is becoming true.

I quite liked Levon back then. He was intelligent, had charisma. However, instead of strengthening democracy and making it a way of life, he turned the process back. That’s the main reason I will not forgive him. He surrounded himself with people and choices which ruined any hope for better. And eventually, as expected, he got betrayed by the same people and choices.

I do not really blame him for those horrific few years, when we lived like… probably the way people live under war conditions, without electricity, with bread cards etc. These were the harshest years in my life. I won’t like anyone to experience what we’ve gone through… I do not think he is to blame for it, that was mainly a consequence of geopolitical situation Armenia was in and we survived it. However, I blame him for not fighting corruption, and instead creating an environment where corruption reached unprecedented levels even for ex-Soviet standards.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.

(more…)

Levon Ter Petrosian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Yesterday was Independence Day, but for most election commentators and observers another event eclipsed the free concert that was staged in Yerevan’s Republic Square. Two hours earlier at the Armenia Marriott Hotel, the former ruling Pan Armenian National Movement (HHSh) held a reception to mark the 16th anniversary of Armenia’s independence from the former Soviet Union, but everyone was waiting for the event to mark another potentially historic moment — the return of the first president of the Republic of Armenia, Levon Ter Petrosian, to politics ahead of the 2008 presidential election.

He didn’t disappoint, it has to be said, and made his first public speech in nearly a decade although he stopped short of making any decision on whether to run against the prime minister, Serzh Sarkisian, in next year’s vote. Even so, the packed Tigran Metz ballroom in the Marriott Hotel greeted Ter Petrosian with rapturous applause and chants of “Levon, Levon, Levon…” He might not have made a decision yet, but the event seemed more like the launch of a presidential election campaign than not. RFE/RL reported on the reception.

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian broke his nearly decade-long silence Friday with an unusually harsh attack on the current authorities in Yerevan which he branded “criminal and corrupt” and accused of turning Armenia into a “third world country.”

Making his first public speech since his dramatic resignation in 1998, Ter-Petrosian said he has still not decided whether or not participate in the upcoming presidential election. He also reiterated his belief that Armenia’s sustainable development is impossible without a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the opening of its borders with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“I have not made a decision yet,” Ter-Petrosian told hundreds of admiring and expectant loyalists who gathered at a Yerevan hotel to celebrate the 16th anniversary of Armenia’s independence. “I am still examining, weighing up, considering things. My approach is purely political. I can’t be guided by emotions. Adventurism is alien to my character.”

“Until I know the effectiveness of my would-be steps, I won’t take steps. Of course, there is a change of atmosphere, a change of mood but in my view, but it has not yet, so to speak, come to a boil,” he said.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.