Armenian-Turkish border, Khor Virap, Ararat Region, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2003

As one of the oldest nations in the world, Armenia occupies a fraction of its ancestral lands. Invaded and subjugated to foreign rule throughout the centuries, many of Armenia’s present day policies have been shaped by unresolved conflict and disputes with its neighbors. As a landlocked country with few natural resources, its full potential for economic development has been frustrated by effective isolation from the surrounding region. More than a million Armenians have emigrated to seek better lives abroad.

Millennium Development Goals

In August 2003, the Armenian government finalized its long-awaited Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) which aims to reduce poverty to 19% by 2015. According to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), most of the PRSP’s objectives are in line with achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which include combating poverty, improving the environment and addressing other pressing social issues.

However, the 2005 MDG progress report produced jointly by the government and UN agencies still considers it unrealistic for Armenia to halve the number of people living in poverty by 2015 compared to 1990 levels. Because of insufficient funding levels and inadequate access to healthcare for the poor, reducing infant and maternal mortality by 2015 might also prove unreachable.

Given the rate of deforestation in Armenia, environmental sustainability is unlikely to be achieved by 2015. New indicators concerning the country’s Lake Sevan have been added to dress concerns with lowering water levels. Access to drinking water is also a concern with 81 percent of rural areas having a centralized water supply according to 2003 data. The figure was 98 percent for urban areas.

However, having already achieved universal primary education, MDG goals in this area have been modified to include secondary education. Secondary professional, professional graduate and postgraduate education has also been mentioned of special significance as is improving its general quality.

The full post is available on The Caucasus Knot.

Sirusho, Arabkir, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

With the first of the semi-finals in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Belgrade, Serbia, just days away, the countries of the South Caucasus are becoming increasingly excited about the international song contest and how their representatives will fair. What makes the situation all the more interesting is that this year will be the first time all three republics compete.

While this will be the third consecutive appearance of Armenia in the competition, Georgia entered for the first time last year, and Azerbaijan will be making its debut. However, of the three contestants, it is Armenia that currently appears to be the favorite not only from the region, but in general as well.

The British bookmaker William Hill currently has 21-year-old Sirusho at 6/1 to win and the popularity of her song, Qele Qele, has extended way past the borders of the country as the Eurovision Blog confirms.

Another tune almost certainly destined for the final is the Armenian entry, Qele Qele. As one of the countries whose national final we paid attention to, we’d heard this one before it was chosen but having heard the other options, we were screaming “Armenia! Choose! This! NOW!!!!!!!!!” before a note of the contest had even been sung. Coming over as Shakira crossed with a healthy dose of Helena Paparizou, only an entirely tone-deaf performance from Sirusho can possibly stop this one from bringing the house down on the night.

All Kinds of Everything for Eurovision 2008 agrees.

ARMENIA : This just gets better and better with every run through. Sirusho sounds confident and looks a lot more confident that before. The choreography is complex and involves a lot more rolling on the floor than I would like, but it is effective for the overhead shots. They have almost all the camera angles right, which is more than can be said for several entries, and even if the song is a tad repetitive, the dancing and fireworks add a bit of variety.

Other people may be less impressed but for me this is an absolutely certain qualifier, and it’s not totally out of the running to win.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Sirusho, Serge Sargsyan Pre-Election Campaign Rally, Komitas, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

It might be considered a little cheesy by most music lovers in Europe and beyond, but countries such as Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia take participation in the annual Eurovision song contest very seriously indeed. Not only does the competition represent the South Caucasus moving closer to Europe, but given that this year has proven to be a political turbulent one for all three countries it might also provide people here with a welcome break from rigged votes and post-election unrest.

Well, maybe that’s hoping a little too much. Spectacular Self-Indulgence, for example, already reports that the venue for yesterday’s national final in Armenia had to be changed because of the state of emergency currently in place following clashes between the opposition and security services last weekend.

[…] The government has imposed a 20 day “State of Emergency” after eight people died in street battles between riot police and citizens who were protesting the result of a presidential election. […]

[…]

There will be a backlash, however. Mark my words. It’s one thing to engage in unlawful surveillance of your political enemies. It’s quite a different matter to f*** with a pop music contest.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

Polling Station, Arabkir, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian/Oneworld Multimedia 2007

YEREVAN, 10 January 2008 - The OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) opened an election observation mission today for the presidential election in Armenia on 19 February.

The mission, headed by Ambassador Geert-Hinrich Ahrens, will consist of 11 core staff based in Yerevan and 28 long-term observers who will be deployed throughout the country on 15 January. Members of the core team and long-term observers are drawn from 22 OSCE participating States.

The ODIHR will request that 250 short-term observers be deployed immediately prior to the election. They will monitor the opening of polling stations, the voting, the counting of ballots, and the tabulation of results.

The mission will assess the electoral process in terms of its compliance with OSCE commitments for democratic elections, other international standards, and national legislation. It will focus on the election campaign, the legislative framework and its implementation, the media situation, the performance of the election administration and relevant government bodies, and the resolution of election-related disputes.

The observation mission and the OSCE Office in Yerevan operate separately under their specific mandates.

For PDF attachments or links to sources of further information, please visit: http://www.osce.org/item/29208.html

The BBC reports that it’s now official. The Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, has been re-elected with 52.8 percent of the vote. The main opposition candidate, Levan Gachechiladze, received 27 percent of the vote.

Earlier in the day, Mr Gachechiladze told thousands of supporters in the capital Tbilisi that results had been “falsified”.

In a snowbound square on Sunday, the Orthodox Christmas Eve, he told the crowd: “We will defend our vote by legal means.”

However, international observer missions applauded the conduct of the election.

US Congressman Alcee Hastings of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), said: “I perceive this election as a valid expression of the choice of the Georgian people.”

He said there had been some shortcomings - notably that Mr Saakashvili’s campaign had overlapped with state activities, and this “contributed to an inequitable campaign environment”.

[…]

The United States urged the opposition to respect the monitors’ verdict.

Russia, however, called that verdict “hasty” and “superficial”.

(more…)

Even though international election monitors from the OSCE/ODIHR concluded that yesterday’s presidential election vote was “broadly democratic” and “the first genuinely competitive presidential election in the country, enabling the Georgian people to express their political choice,” TOL Georgia has since read the much longer preliminary report.

Compared to the earlier statement read out at today’s press conference, the “significant challenges which need to be addressed” are actually quite alarming.

“The distribution of vouchers for such things as utilities and medical supplies to vulnerable groups was criticized as an alleged misuse of budgetary funds in support of Mr. Saakashvili.”

“The vouchers prominently displayed that they were a subsidy from the President. Healthcare vouchers, as well as employment scheme leaflets, featured visually outstanding number “5”s – the number on the ballot under which the UNM has run in elections since 2004. Distributors of vouchers sometimes asked recipients whether they would vote for Mr. Saakashvili, and asked them to sign documents confirming their support. Vouchers were in some cases distributed from UNM offices.”

[…]

“The campaign was overshadowed by widespread allegations of intimidation and pressure, among others on public-sector employees. These included a number of confirmed cases of pressure on opposition supporters by the police and local officials to desist from campaigning, threats of arbitrary arrest or job dismissal and cases of landlords who were pressurized not to let premises for use as opposition campaign offices. Isolated instances of violence against opposition activists, including kidnapping, were reported and verified.

“A debate between the four main contestants did not take place as Mr. Saakashvili chose not to take part and his three main rivals conditioned their participation upon the opportunity to debate with him.”

[..]

“In addition, observers found CEC-produced stickers with the text “Where will you be on 5 January?”, with the “5” in a red circle visually resembling that used on Mr. Saakashvili’s campaign materials.”

(more…)

A statement by the OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation Mission (EOM) has now been released, and CNN is one of the first to include reference to it in its coverage of yesterday’s presidential election in Georgia. Interestingly, the EOM seems quite encouraged by the vote and not least because unlike the election that brought Saakashvili to power in 2004, its conduct could be considered in the context of a stronger opposition fielding several candidates this time.

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) — Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili looked set for victory in Saturday’s snap presidential election as international observers declared that voting had been free and fair — despite protests by opposition supporters.

With 10 percent of the votes counted on Sunday afternoon, Saakashvili appeared on course to secure the 50 percent plus one vote necessary to avoid a runoff in two weeks against the second highest vote-getter.

[…]

[O]bservers with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the vote had been “the first genuinely competitive presidential election in the country, enabling the Georgian people to express their political choice.”

In a statement released Sunday, the group said Georgia’s election commission had carried out an extensive voter education campaign in a short timeframe and operated transparently. Overall polling had been organized and relatively peaceful, it added.

But it acknowledged some cases of voter intimidation and some technical flaws such as a slow counting process and admitted that in some cases the commission’s members had acted in a partisan manner, “not always observing the neutrality required of an election administration.”

Two other groups of international observers released signed statements that the voting was free and fair. More than 2,000 election observers and 160 media organizations from around the world had converged on Georgia, a former Soviet republic on the Black Sea, to watch Saturday’s election.

(more…)

While there are many reasons to criticize the situation the country found itself in under the former president, Levon Ter Petrosian, there is perhaps one area of policy which might endear himself to the international community and which could result in dramatic changes inside Armenia and the South Caucasus. That is, when it comes to foreign policy, Ter Petrosian is said to favor a concessionary peace deal with Azerbaijan to resolve the long-standing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh and normalized relations with Turkey.

When Ter Petrosian held his first pre-election public meeting in Yerevan’s Liberty Square in October, such a possibility was not lost on the international news wires. The Associated Press was particularly upbeat on the prospect for regional stability and integration.

If successful, his return to office could signal a major shift in Armenia’s fraught relations with neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Ter-Petrosian, 62, is an advocate of compromise with the two countries, which have closed their borders and imposed economic embargoes over Armenia’s support for the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorny Karabakh.

[…]

Armenia needed to end its regional isolation by normalising relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey, he said.

“Until we have resolved the questions of the blockade of Armenia, relations with our neighbours and Karabakh, Armenia cannot develop and strengthen,” he said.

“As a result of the criminal policies of the current government, Azerbaijan has only toughened its position and will not seek compromise,” he added.

The full post is available on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.

In addition to acting as the Caucasus Editor for Global Voices Online, some exciting news, I hope. I’ve been asked to act as the Armenia coordinator/contact person for a new online media project set up by France 24.

The Observers is a France 24 site that aims to:

Enrich our coverage of international current affairs with eyewitness accounts from ‘observers’- that’s to say those people who are at the heart of events. Videos, texts, photos- none of the content is produced by professional journalists- but everything is selected, verified, translated and explained by our team.

Give you the opportunity to discuss current affairs with ‘observers’ chosen by France 24, or with ‘friends’, sorted according to their expertise and interests.

(more…)

Despite the failure of the last meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents to sign the anticipated framework agreement to resolve the long-standing conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, RFE/RL reports that Aliyev and Kocharian might meet once more before presidential elections in both republics next year put the peace process on hold until 2009.

Azerbaijani media quoted Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza as saying that the meeting could take place in October or November.

[…]

The U.S. official arrived in Baku from Moscow where he discussed with the Minsk Group’s Russian and French co-chairs the latest impasse in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. Visiting Armenia on Monday, he indicated that the conflicting parties are unlikely to cut unpopular peace deals before the start of presidential elections due in both Armenia and Azerbaijan next year.

According to the Azerbaijani news agency Trend, Bryza sounded more optimistic on that score in Baku, saying that the mediators should use the limited time remaining before the presidential races to again try to get the parties to sort out their remaining differences on the Minsk Group’s existing peace proposals.

(more…)

The Armenian Observer reports that the bill which many considered to be a direct attack on RFE/RL has been rejected in its second reading after what sounds like some clever tactics from Armenia’s new opposition and significant pressure from the United States and Europe.

Lragir.am reports, that the legislative amendments designed to limit foreign media from broadcasting on the Armenian public TV/Radio frequencies and seen largely as directed against the Radio Liberty Armenian Service ahead of the upcoming presidential elections, have not passed the second reading in the Armenian Parliament today.

According to the same source 63 MPs have voted for the legislative package, 1 MP - Alvard Petrosyan from the ARF party has abstained from voting. The opposition parties: “Heiritage” and “Rule of Law” have not voted against, thus there has not been enough quorum to adopt legislation.