While current Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan’s lead in Armenia’s presidential elections are not surprising, a local blogger raises concerns about children’s indirect participation in the elections.
It’s now nearly two in the morning and it’s been a tiring day. However, while report after report of violations and falsification comes in, in the seven polling stations I visited today in the Kentron and Arabkir districts of the city, voting was pretty much calm. That’s not to say that violations didn’t occur elsewhere, or even that all was perfect in these particular polling stations, but rather that the environment for voting was peaceful.
Probably the worst violation I saw, although I’m not sure it goes against the electoral code or not, was a number of mothers allowing their children to vote for them.
[…]
While to many – children’s participation in the election in the form of dropping the ballot to the box may sound a violation, I find that participation to be one of the few good things about elections in Armenia.
And that’s not just because when I was a child I (successfully) convinced my Mom to let me drop her ballot in Armenia’s elections. It is because kids find it interesting and fun to participate in what they perceive a decision making.
Actually, I have not seen good arguments against why kids shouldn’t vote. My sister, whose 5-year-old gets angry when she is told she can’t vote, says that her kid changes her mind on the candidates quite often and explains her choice by the candidate’s looks or talks. So the “childish” decision-making doesn’t reflect critical thinking and educated determination some say.
Well, people don’t always – if not most of the time – vote based on much thinking. In Armenia, for instance, one often votes for a candidate because of hating the other candidate due to their regional origin (“I am voting for Levon because Serzh is from Karabakh,” vice verse). Or if they anticipate something for their family (like some of my relatives who would gain power if Levon’s regime returned).
But see, my niece doesn’t make decisions because she hates someone or she will get a government job.
Anyhow, I know that the western ideological hierarchical mindset and its legal framework won’t allow kids to vote in national elections but there must be some kind of autonomy and mock elections that will get young people used to voting.
Field trips, for instance, could be decided in schools through a democratic vote with several options to choose from. Armenia’s schools lack student governments. Well, the university student governments have not been a huge success (usually, exclusively male-dominated and openly partisan) but it doesn’t mean younger kids shouldn’t have the right to some kind of decision-making.
And these are not ‘western’ ideas. Kids often vote in indigenous societies.
Unfortunately, most Armenians don’t have much expectations from the election with current Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan guaranteed to win and his main opponent being the former president.
And although the people are promised false hope all the time, there is nothing false – to borrow from the words of a wise man – about hope.
YEREVAN, Armenia – A plane carrying 21 people has crashed on takeoff from Armenia‘s capital, but there were no deaths reported, the head of the country’s civil aviation authority said.
The plane, a Canadair CRJ-100, was heading for Minsk, Belarus, when it flipped over on the runway at Zvartnots Airport and burst into flames, Avtiom Movsesian said. He said there were 18 passengers and three crew members aboard.
He did not immediately know the airline to which the plane belonged, but Russian news reports said it was a plane of Belarus‘ Belavia Airlines.
Onnik Krikorian at OneWorld Multimedia reports that Armenian-American repatriate Raffi Hovhannisian, a politician seen as uncorrupted by many, has endorsed presidential candidate and former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan (LTP), under who Hovhannisian worked in the early 1990s.
In the most important news of recent weeks so far, it was today announced that the Heritage Party of U.S.-born former foreign minister, Raffi Hovannisian, has decided to back former president Levon Ter-Petrossian in the presidential election next week. Such support was considered vital for Ter-Petrossian by some observers and certainly makes the 19 February vote more likely to be held in two rounds.
Although Heritage only polled 81,048 votes during last year’s parliamentary election, some believe it actually attracted twice as much. However, more importantly for Ter-Petrossian, perhaps, is that Heritage’s support affords him a certain amount of credibility with a significant number of voters who were confused, undecided or wavering before.
Although Hovhannisian’s support will undoubtedly help the former president in the elections, the same support may harm Hovhannisian’s credibility in the eyes of many Armenians who see LTP accountable for the extreme poverty and violence that swept newly independent Armenia in the 1990s.
My two cents to LTP’s campaign – not that I am going to vote for their candidate – is to have someone else write LTP’s speeches. I mean “speeches” and not academic lectures with luxurious terminology some of which are coined by the former president.
Here is an outline that may be of help (all candidates invited to use).
Start you speech with an attention getter – a quote or even a joke (being funny may help to).
Smile sometimes when you talk – not in a way that it shows like you are happy or laugh at the people but that you are smiling because you enjoy talking to the people who have gathered to listen to you.
After the attention getter hit to the topic and review what you will be talking about.
Each paragraph should make sense and support one main point which will itself support the very main point hinted to in the introduction.
Don’t use academic terms – use words that ordinary people will understand but talk politely and grammatically.
Talk to the people who you are talking to. Giving an academic lecture in the Liberty Square is ignorant and arrogant and shows disrespect. Now, most people won’t complain about the lectures (and some will be surprised and happy that they didn’t understand any word – so they are voting for a smart guy!) but something in them will make uncomfortable about the speech.
I only noticed today that Azg Daily, a Yerevan-based publication, published my latest Armenian column on human trafficking and oppression of women in Armenia in its Nov 29, 2007, issue.
Այսօր, 2007 թվականին, աշխարհում կան ավելի շատ ստրուկներ, քան 200 տարի առաջ: Ի տարբերություն 1600-ականներին եւ հետագա տարիներին Աֆրիկայից բռնի փախցրած եւ Ամերիկայում ստրկության մատնված միլիոնավոր մարդկանց, մերօրյա ստրուկները հաճախ լքում են իրենց տները հոժար կամքով՝ բարեկեցիկ ապագա ստեղծելու երազներով:
[Today, in 2007, there are more slaves in the world than 200 years ago. In contrast to the millions of people kidnapped from Africa and forced into slavery in America in the 1600s, modern slaves often leave their homes with their own will with dreams for a better future.]
[…]
Անապահով ընտանիքներից լինելուց բացի թրաֆիկինգի զոհերին միացնում է նաեւ այլ փաստ՝ կին լինելը: Լինելով հանցանք ամբողջ մարդկության դեմ՝ թրաֆիկինգը նաեւ կանանց ճնշման միջոց է եւ ինչ-որ չափով այդ ճնշման հետեւանք: Հայաստանը նախկին սովետական երկրների հետ համեմատած ունի կանանց նվազագույն ներկայացուցչությունը օրենսդրական մարմնում. Հայաստանի Հանրապետության Ազգային Ժողովի անդամների հինգ տոկոսն է ընդամենը կին, երբ կանայք կազմում են նույն հանրապետության բնակչության կեսից ավելին:
[Aside from being from impoverished families, there is something else that unites victims of human (sex) trafficking – being women. Being a crime against all humanity, human trafficking is also a way of oppression against women and a result of the same oppression. In comparison to other former Soviet countries, Armenia has the lowest percentage of female lawmakers: only 5% of members of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia are women while females constitute more than half of the population of the same republic.]
[…]
Բայց կանանց հանդեպ բռնությունը ժխտելու մեջ կա նաեւ ինչ-որ պատվի խնդիր, ու եթե ժխտում են, ուրեմն գիտեն, որ սխալ են: Անցած տարի, երբ որոշ հասարակական կազմակերպություններ պարզեցին, որ հայաստանցի կանանց մոտավորապես կեսը ֆիզիկական բռնության են ենթարկվել, Ազգային Ժողովի 95 տոկոս կազմող տղամարդ անդամներից մեկն ասաց, որ ճնշման հարցը բարձրացնող կազմակերպությունները պարզապես գրանտներ են ուզում եւ իջեցնում են Հայաստանի վարկը հանուն իրենց գրպանների: «Նրանք չպետք է ներկայացնեն Հայաստանն ինչ-որ աֆրիկյան ցեղ, որտեղ մարդիկ իրար ուտում են»:
[There is some “pride” in the denial of (the fact of) oppression against women. And if there is denial, then [men] know they are wrong. Last year, when several NGOs found out that about half of Armenia’s women had been subjected to physical brutality in the past year, a member of the 95% men-controlled parliament said that these non-profits simply seek grants and hurt Armenia’s image for the sake of their pockets. “They shouldn’t present Armenia as some African tribe where people eat each other.”
[…]
Interestingly, I had originally written this piece for the newsletter of one of Armenia’s university student governments. The student leaders, all exclusively male, refused to publish the opinion piece in a newsletter that is perhaps not read by more than a few dozen students.
Although in the same month that I wrote this short column I had been published in the world’s leading historic magazine -which recently contacted me asking if I were ready to submit another article – I thought that even reaching to one student in Armenia would have been important.
Anyhow, I never heard of any reaction to my piece on human trafficking but I am still glad that Azg published something that would be generally considered radical feminism in Armenia (and humanism in most of the world).
EU officials touring the South Caucasus this week were confronted by heated words from President Ilham Aliyev, who told them Azerbaijan is ready to “wage war” with neighboring Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan’s recent windfall of oil and gas revenues appears to have persuaded Aliyev that he could turn the tables on Armenia, which has long held the military upper hand in the dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic-Armenian territory located within Azerbaijan.
In talks on February 4 with Slovenian Foreign Minister Dmitrij Rupel, who was representing the current EU Presidency, Aliyev indicated Baku was contemplating waging war for control of the disputed territory, which together with a strip of adjacent Azerbaijani territory has been under Yerevan’s control since a 1988-94 war between the two countries.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU’s external relations commissioner, tells RFE/RL that Brussels firmly rejected Baku’s “inflammatory” rhetoric. “I clearly said, not only to the authorities, but also at the press conference, that I think it is highly important that they avoid any inflammatory speech at the moment of presidential elections,” she says.
Both countries are holding a presidential vote this year — Armenia on February 19, and Azerbaijan in October. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has spent more than 15 years mediating talks between the two sides, has indicated an election year is not likely to see major progress on the issue.
Baku, however, appears impatient. The Azerbaijani leadership, Rupel said, appears to feel that “time is not on Armenia’s side.” Nor is money. Azerbaijan’s defense budget this year will exceed $1 billion; Armenia’s is just one-third of that figure.
Azerbaijan has enjoyed spectacular economic growth over the past few years. The country’s GDP grew by 25 percent in 2007, almost exclusively on the strength of oil and gas exports.
Azerbaijan’s minister for economic development, Heydar Babayev, says he expects his government to generate upward of $150 billion in oil and gas revenues by 2015.
Armenia, meanwhile, has no lucrative natural resources. It is landlocked, blockaded by neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan, and — at Baku’s behest — bypassed by oil and gas pipelines, as well as rail and road projects, which originate in Azerbaijan.
’Winning The Peace’
But, as Rupel notes, Armenia has “alliances that speak for it.” This is a reference to Russian backing. Throughout the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russia is rumored to have given Armenia military equipment worth $1 billion. Russia provides for most of Armenia’s energy needs and has bought up most of its energy infrastructure.
The Armenian government did not appeared cowed by Baku’s fighting words. Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian tells RFE/RL that Armenia is confident of its military capability. “No matter how strong the Azeris will be in the next 15 years, even with this kind of spending, even [if it] doubled every year, to catch up with Armenia’s commitment to defend itself and Karabakh, that will require [as a] minimum 15-20 years,” he says.
Oskanian says that Armenia would not be intimidated in any event. More importantly, he adds, he does not believe there can be a military solution to Nagorno-Karabakh. “We fought twice with the Azeris, we prevailed, but we never claimed that we won the war,” he says. “Unless we win the peace, we will never claim that we won the war.”
(c) Onnik Krikorian 2007, Yerevan Liberty Square, Armenia
Krikorian also discusses the somewhat partisan news coverage of Radio Free Europe/Armenia Liberty, a U.S.-sponsored news media, that has previously seemed to suggest support for former president Levon Ter-Petrosian’s candidacy.
Incidentally, RFE/RL says that many of those in attendance [of the ARF rally] were “bused from outside the capital,” which is true, although it never seems to mention that the same was also true for last week’s Artur Baghdasarian rally. Levon Ter-Petrossian’s Liberty Square rally on 22 January was also made up mainly by supporters from the regions. Again, this unfortunately seems to be apparent bias from RFE/RL albeit dressed up as very sophisticated pro-Ter-Petrosian propaganda.
The RFE article on the ARF rally has also omitted the “nationalist” label that the news organization almost always adds to ARF. Although ARF is, indeed, nationalist compared to most Armenian political parties, the label has a quite negative connotation in western politics and doesn’t entirely reflect ARF’s position on many things. ARF has many wings, including one that sponsors the annual Armenians and the Left symposium, that are quite far from being nationalist. I have myself used the term ‘nationalist’ to describe ARF at least once but I am not convinced that in covering political elections the vague term’s repeated usage by self-perceived objective media is justified.
Statement of Senator Hillary Clinton on the U.S.-Armenia Relationship
Alone among the Presidential candidates, I have been a longstanding supporter of the Armenian Genocide Resolution. I have been a co-sponsor of the Resolution since 2002, and I support adoption of this legislation by both Houses of Congress.
I believe the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide. I have twice written to President Bush calling on him to refer to the Armenian Genocide in his annual commemorative statement and, as President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide. Our common morality and our nation’s credibility as a voice for human rights challenge us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and remembered by the Congress and the President of the United States.
If the mass atrocities of the 20th Century have taught us anything it is that we must honestly look the facts of history in the face in order to learn their lessons, and ensure they will not happen again. It is not just about the past, but about our future. We must close the gap between words and deeds to prevent mass atrocities. That is why I am a supporter of the Responsibility to Protect. As President, I will work to build and enhance U.S. and international capacity to act early and effectively to prevent mass atrocities. The Bush administration’s words of condemnation have not been backed with leadership to stop the genocide in Darfur. I support a no-fly-zone over Darfur. I have championed strong international action to ensure that the government of Sudan can no longer act with impunity, or interfere with the international peacekeeping force, which is essential for the protection of the people of Darfur.
I value my friendship with our nation’s vibrant Armenian-American community. This is in keeping with my dedication to the causes of the Armenian-American community over many years. I was privileged as First Lady to speak at the first-ever White House gathering in 1994 for leaders from Armenia and the Armenian-American community to celebrate the historic occasion of Armenia’s reborn independence. I said at the time that America will stand with you as you realize what the great Armenian poet, Puzant Granian, called the Armenian’s dream “to be left in peace in his mountains, to build, to dream, to create.”
I will, as President, work to expand and improve U.S.-Armenia relations in addressing the common issues facing our two nations: increasing trade, fostering closer economic ties, fighting terrorism, strengthening democratic institutions, pursuing our military partnership and deepening cooperation with NATO, and cooperating on regional concerns, among them a fair and democratic resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. As President, I will expand U.S. assistance programs to Armenia and to the people of Nagorno-Karabagh.
I look forward, as President, to continuing to work with the Armenian-American community on the many domestic and international challenges we face together, and to build on the strong foundations of shared values that have long brought together the American and Armenian peoples.
The word Armenian was considered to be an abuse; the Turks connected the Armenians with the Kurdish Worker Party (PKK) or with ASALA (the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia). There was a great anxiety and trouble in the community when the Karabagh problem was discussed in Turkey.
We lived like a worm. We heard what was on TV but could do nothing. We apposed, cried, told that all these were lie but could not speak loudly. We need to break the wall, it was necessary.
One day the Patriarch Ghazanchyan invited us and told that there was a photo of an Armenian priest and [Pkk leader] Abdullah Odjalan in the “Sabah” newspaper and there was written under the photo “Here is the fact of Armenian and PKK collaboration”.
Then His Holiness stated that it was a lie, the priest was not an Armenian. He asked me and my friends who were with me at that time what we thought about all that. I expressed my point of view and suggested that it’ll be meaningful if we invite a press- conference. It was a brave action, all the local and international press came and it was a great success. The impression was indescribable.
After the meeting I suggested that it was nonsense to invite a conference on every occasion, we had to take definite steps. And I suggested publishing a newspaper.
Talking about minorities in Turkey, Dink said:
You will not find anything connected with minorities especially the Armenians in any textbooks. There are facts on minorities only in the textbook of the National Security. In the elementary school there is not even a sentence like “Ali gives the ball to Hakob”; Ali will always give it to Veli. When we observe them we are nowhere.
Only in the textbooks of National Security you may find the word “Armenians” which will take place in the unit of unprofitable groups which play bad tricks with Turkey.
Although Krikorian did sell some photos to the campaign, he is worried that the usage of other photographs may suggest his support for Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
In a country like Armenia, where journalists are usually thought of – and sometimes are – as some political group’s “agent,” Krikorian’s concerns are valid.
