In countries such as Armenia where the mainstream broadcast media is firmly under the control of government-connected businessmen and/or officials, while the traditional print and online media largely reflects the opposition in the country, there is no doubt that blogs have an important role to play in the dissemination of information, news and views.

[…]

But rather than change as the result of alternative, opposition voices seeking to involve themselves in the internal political life of the country, the situation might now be changing because of four bloggers who protested on and offline against an event staged early this week at a Yerevan school to promote peace and reconciliation between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

[…]

The four Live Journal bloggers — Uzogh, Pigh, Aerial_vortex and Akunamatata_ser — were however angered by the attempt to hold such an event at a school run by Armenia’s former Minister of Education, Ashot Bleyan, who is notorious for what many consider to be “anti-Armenian” positions on Nagorno Karabakh and Genocide recognition. Speaking to Global Voices for this post, Uzogh explains why the four bloggers staged the action.

On December 14, the day when the press release announcing the event at Bleyan’s school was sent to public, I wrote a post [RUS] expressing my anger towards the organizers and sponsors of this event. The post resulted in many comments and a rather long discussion with Mark Grigoryan (Armenian journalist now residing in UK).

Some of the participants of this discussion suggested doing something to make this event a failure, but I preferred to take some time out for reflection before resorting to action. A day later, I concluded that an aggressive action would not result in the failure of the event, but would rather turn the organizers into some kind of victims which would lead to increased publicity and additional fund raising opportunities.

That’s why I instead preferred to pursue a tactic of mockery and shared this idea with a few bloggers that had already expressed their intention to join any protest action. We had a brainstorming at my house on Sunday and figured out what could be done.

I didn’t want to make this a public protest action, and none of us are members of any political party or non-formal group etc, so we did not aim to attract a lot of supporters. This was the protest by a few men and citizens, and not a civic action. At its core was the concept that we didn’t like the strategy of unilateral reconciliation through the brain-washing of children.

The full post is available on Global Voices Online.

I’ve just received a copy of the November edition of New Internationalist magazine in which my albeit short piece on the continuing saga of alleged corruption in World Bank projects in Armenia is included. Although I can’t see the text on the New Internationalist web site, because it’s now published I can at least now include the text here on my blog.

New Internationalist, NI 406
November 2007, p26

Skulduggery: Fuelling corruption in Armenia

It all seemed to be on the up and up for Bruce Tasker. In 2004, he was invited to become a special consultant to an Armenian parliamentary commission examining the use of $3 billion in international donor funds. He accepted the invitation – but he never could have guessed what would happen next.

The Armenian capital, Yerevan, was used as a case study for the World Bank-funded $30 million Municipal Development Project to improve its water supplies. Tasker, a veteran British development worker, and his team, discovered not only project failure but also an administration riddled with corruption, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

So, taking the Bank’s stated concern with corruption in the former Soviet Republic at face value, Tasker reported his findings, not only to the parliamentary commission, but also to the Bank’s office in Yerevan. Rather than act upon the commission’s interim findings, Tasker says that the bank turned on him.

Alleging blacklisting by the bank for reporting the illegalities, Tasker believes that pressure was applied on the government to prevent full public disclosure. He claims that taking the matter further would have revealed colossal fraud and corruption and that all the players, including senior government officials and foreign workers, would lose out. ‘The World Bank is fuelling corruption in Armenia,’ Tasker told New Internationalist.

Despite the documented allegations, no action has been taken – including by the World Bank’s own internal watchdog, the Department for International Integrity (INT). The allegations against the Bank and British nationals involved in the project were, however, reported by Tasker to the British Embassy, which informed the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and in turn, the Serious Fraud Office.

In March 2007, the Washington-based watchdog Government Accountability Project (GAP) took up Tasker’s cause and filed its own complaint with the INT in the hope that an investigation into the documented cases of corruption and fraud would be launched.

When the INT finally responded this August, it gave no indication of when it would investigate the matter. According to INT, the case was considered to be of “medium” priority and dependent on “the availability of investigative resources.” The letter came just days before GAP released its annual report on the INT. The Armenian case was singled out for specific criticism.

Tasker jokes about the INT’s reluctance to investigate the matter: ‘I should consider myself fortunate… the low priority cases are simply filed away with no further action’. Following on from the forced resignation of World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, this new revelation hammers yet more nails into the coffin of the Bank’s credibility. Self-righteous finger-wagging should start at home.

Onnik Krikorian

Yesterday a friend told me that I had too much politics on my blog even though not only is it election time in Armenia, but it’s also part of my work. Nevertheless, perhaps it’s time for a break if only for one post, and as music plays an important part in my life, what better a subject to cover and not least since in the past few months, the monotony of the type of music being produced in Armenia has really gotten to me.

With one or two exceptions, even the rock scene is mundane, predictable and lacking in any spirit. Music for the masses is just as bad, although many would argue that the same is true in the even more commercially-driven Western market. Still, what we do have in Europe and the U.S. is a more diverse selection and five decades of pop and rock music — some of which stands the test of time.

Of late, for example, I’ve rediscovered the Sex Pistols, England’s most notorious punk rock band of the 1970s. Arguably manufactured by music impresario Malcom McLaren, whatever people might think of the Sex Pistols, I remember that they turned the country upside down. Aged seven when they were formed, even now I can remember the shock and outrage that accompanied the very mention of their name in the British media.

Sex Pistols are an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. The band originally comprised vocalist Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock (later replaced by Sid Vicious). Although their initial career lasted only three years and produced only four singles and one studio album, the Sex Pistols have been described by the BBC as “the definitive English punk rock band.” The Pistols are widely credited with initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and creating the first generation gap within rock and roll.

The Sex Pistols emerged as a response to what was perceived to be the “increasingly safe and bloated” progressive rock and manufactured pop music of the mid-1970s. The band created various controversies during their brief career which captivated Britain, but often eclipsed their music. Their shows and tours repeatedly faced difficulties from authorities, and public appearances often ended in disaster and riot. Their 1977 single, “God Save the Queen”, was widely regarded as an attack on the British monarchy and British nationalism.

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As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve written another feature article on the Yezidis in Armenia for Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society. From reading the email I’ve just received, looks like the article accompanied by photos will be published in the January 2008 issue if any of you want to subscribe to the magazine before the end of the year. A great magazine, and no, I don’t get any commissions on putting readers their way.

A friend has just forwarded me another U.S. Embassy Warden Message cautioning American citizens from being in the vicinity of opposition protests in Tbilisi. The message follows Wednesday’s clash with police in the Georgian capital.

U.S. Embassy Yerevan
November 8, 2007

This is to provide information to American citizens considering travel to Georgia. The Department of State issued a Public Announcement after several days of demonstrations in the capital city Tbilisi and President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili’s declaration of a state of emergency for Tbilisi. The US Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia strongly urges American citizens to avoid the area of demonstrations if traveling to Georgia. For the latest information on events in Georgia, please go to the following website:
http://georgia.usembassy.gov/citserv_wardenm.html.

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Wait for a bus and two turn up at the same time as we say in England, and that certainly seems to be the case for November and getting material published in the international press. Next month not only will New Internationalist be publishing an article, but Geographical, the magazine of the Royal Geographical Society in the U.K., should also be using a 1,800 word story from Armenia accompanied by photos.

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Two months after first covering allegations of corruption in a $30 million World Bank loan to improve the water system in Yerevan on this blog, the media in Armenia has finally gotten round to covering the accusations even though they had been approached by a British whistleblower, Bruce Tasker, before the parliamentary election in May. Moreover, as the allegations had first surfaced in an interim report released by a 2004 parliamentary commission, it’s fair to say that the media as well as civil society failed to do its job or fulfill its function.

Neither followed up on criticism of the international banking organization by Deputy Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Vahan Hovannisian, but now that The Observer newspaper published details of Tasker’s allegations on Sunday, the local media has finally covered the story. Yesterday, Aravot, Haykakan Zhamanak, and one other covered the allegations. Today, A1 Plus and RFE/RL reported on the claims made against the World Bank in Armenia, and its reluctance to send an investigation team to Yerevan to clear the matter up once and for all.

The World Bank on Thursday again shrugged off embarrassing allegations about gross misuse of a $30 million loan to Armenia that were first made by an Armenian parliamentary commission in 2004 and have resurfaced in recent weeks.

The loan was part of a 1999 World Bank project designed to upgrade the country’s water infrastructure and improve Yerevan residents’ access to drinking water. The Armenian parliament formed in 2003 an ad hoc commission to investigate the effectiveness of these and other large-scale infrastructure projects financed by Western donors.

In its first report made public in March 2004, the commission headed by deputy speaker Vahan Hovannisian concluded that the water scheme has failed to achieve its main objectives to due to mismanagement and corruption among government officials and private firms. The report deplored the fact that 27 percent of the World Bank funds have been spent on project management, overheads and logistics.

The World Bank office dismissed the claims at the time, insisting that the project’s implementation has been a success.

The Washington-based institution, which has been Armenia’s principal lender, was again put on the defense recently by Bruce Tasker, a Yerevan-based British engineer who had participated in the 2003-2004 parliamentary inquiry as an expert. Tasker detailed those allegations on his website and effectively implicated the World Bank in the alleged corruption.

“The fact is it was not an isolated case of a few thousand dollars here or there, it was tens of millions of dollars,” Britain’s “The Observer” newspaper quoted him as saying on Sunday.

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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.

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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.

As Russia reinvokes memories of the Cold War at the same time as it apparently invaded Georgian airspace and jettisoned a missile, the BBC reports that its broadcasts on a Russian FM station have been dropped in a move reminiscent of recent attempts in Armenia to restrict RFE/RL broadcasts here.

The broadcaster’s last FM distribution partner in Russia, Bolshoye Radio, said it had been told to remove BBC content or risk being shut down.

Two other Russian FM stations have dropped BBC programming recently.

[…]

Bolshoye Radio’s owners, financial group Finam, told the BBC that Russia’s media regulators required that all programming be produced by the station itself.

A spokesman for the company said management had made the decision without outside prompting and that it was well known that the BBC was set up to broadcast foreign propaganda.

“Any media which is government-financed is propaganda - it’s a fact, it’s not negative,” the spokesman, Igor Ermachenkov, told the BBC.

A BBC spokesman, Mike Gardner, said: “Although the BBC is funded by the UK government… a fundamental principle of its constitution and its regulatory regime is that it is editorially independent of the UK government.”

Critics say Russia is taking measures to curb media freedom ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll in March.

Well, not really, but you know the expression — wait for one bus and two turn up at the same time. Actually, I wasn’t waiting for any metaphorical bus, but not only do I get a request to do a radio interview for National Public Radio in the U.S., but a few hours later another request for one came through from the BBC World Service. Funny old day, but good to know my work is known outside of Armenia.