A reader of Blogian has sent a very critical letter in regards to Armenia’s praised-as-democratic elections suggesting that the reason there was no major outcry against the elections among ordinary Armenians was because people have completely lost their hope toward democracy in Armenia and predicted the exact turnout of the vote – people who are in charge staying in charge – long time ago.

I guess the critic is right in the sense that “everybody knows” who is Armenia’s next president and it doesn’t really talk about democracy.  Anyhow, you read and judge.

Actualy [fair time] media coverage or whatever has nothing to do with European observers opinion.

It was 110% political decision because S. Sargsyan [the current prime minister that “everybody knows” will be the president next year] is much more
American/European supporter than Kocharyan [the current president],thats why they have let one party to get 50+% of whole parliament [actually that’s not the case].
That means that in Karabakh case Armenia will now have much softer
position,the same time both western civilizations want Armenian to scream
about Genocide as loud as possible because they want to weaken Turkey
to make it more manageable.
But the question you should ask is what it has to do with Armenians
living in Armenia ?
That means continue of white genocide. According to officials more than 38% of population depends on transfer from their relatives abroad and none official data says more than half of the population depends on transfers.
Its been three years since USD->AMD [Armenian money] exchange rate is “droping” since Armenian economy is “growing”. It has droped by 45% during last 3 years.
For people who rely on transfers that means they they got poor by half during last three years.
The same time they hold prices in local currency high and wont let them
drop so you have to spend more dollars to live the same way you did three
years ago.
That means about $1,000 for the family of 4 to survive.

Yerevan [Armenia’s capital] is now 18th most expensive city in the world, we are somewhere next to Amsterdam and similar developed cities, but the same time we are on 80th place according to UN reports. Something is wrong, the country with no natural resources and half of population of which depends on transfer has 18th most expensive city accross the planet ?
European observers expressed political decision. In fact this time the “elections” were the worst in out history, there was no fight
between parties at all, everyone knew what will happen many months
before elections.This campaign was so weak that one can tell you that
there was no campaign at all.

Republicans sold their soles to foreigne countries, in exchange west let
them do whatever they want inside Armenia,there has never been less
democracy here as now.

I am, and not only me, deeply disapointed in Europe or whatever Western
civilization “democratic,transparent etc” elections,that was the last hope that they will stop whats happening here now.
Prices are rising by 20% a year, more people will leave Armenia in
coming years so that Serge Sargsyan and company can drive anobe Mybach [Blogian doesn’t know what the last thing is but he thinks it is a new kind of car].

I guess the bottom line of the e-mail is a challenge to the status-quo of neo-liberalism where “free trade” and other forms of governance are hailed as democratic while ordinary people are getting poorer and poorer.  A perfect example of this would be India.

Photo: Members of the election committee count ballots at a polling station during parliamentary elections in Yerevan. Western observers on Sunday said parliamentary elections in Armenia were the fairest yet in the ex-Soviet state, now set to be run by a coalition of parties close to the current government that swept the vote.(AFP/Karen Minasyan)  

Hailed as the first democratic election in Armenia’s 15-year-old independence after breaking up from the Soviet Union, the results of the parliament votes are in:

5 parties have received the number of votes needed to enter the National Assembly. These are the Republican Party of Armenia, the Prosperous Armenia Party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party, the Country of Legality Party and the Heritage Party.

Cartoon, showing political party slogans saying “we are the best” in several different ways, by Pavel Jangirov from http://echannel.am/?topic_id=690.

Although pro-government Republicans and Prosperous Armenia party have led the polls, western observers are saying the elections generally met international standards.

They still say there were isolated instances of double voting and falsification of results, but overall it was an improvement from previous undemocratic elections.

Photo: Armenia’s Prime Minister Serzh Sarksyan listens to a journalist’s question after casting his ballot during a parliamentary election in Yerevan May 12, 2007. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili (ARMENIA)

A local, foreign-born Armenian blogger served as an observer of the vote and was shocked by the fact that “Everything went so smoothly, I can’t tell you.”

It was parliamentary elections yesterday, and I got the chance, thanks to the “It’s Your Choice” NGO and Transparency International, to be a full-fledged elections observer! Well, me and lots of other people, including a number of Diasporan-Armenians, but I guess I was a bit over-excited, because, honestly, at the end of the day, I think it’s pretty cool…

[…]

Well, it was awfully tiring, but I have to say I was terribly impressed, and felt proud, because, before going in as an observer, I was expecting to see the most khaydarag, utterly ridiculous things as usual, and I was even looking forward to a nice fight with the authorities, but things went so smoothly, it was so clean, so just… I mean, I’ve been hearing reports from elsewhere, and the Lord alone knows what we are to expect in the next few weeks in terms of accusations and rallies, but all I know is, I have not lost my faith in the Armenian people and democracy, as I expected I would.

Meanwhile, it is not too encouraging (at least for me) to see that an oligarch widely known as “stupid” got to the second place with 15.1 percent votes.  It is not impossible that he actually earned the votes, but it kind of shows that the Armenian society is not, how should I say, very different from the rest of the world. I guess if George W. Bush got reelected in America than Dodi Gago could easily get 15.1% in Armenia…

Overall, from my personal conversations to friends and relatives in Armenia I was surprised (in a very nice way) with the high turnout and interest of voters. One cousin, for example, who barely turned 18 went and voted early morning. I don’t care who she voted for, but she still voted! My sister and her husband voted for different political parties, and I felt I lived in utopia when they calmly discussed on the phone why and how they voted for different parties (one opposition; one pro-government) and were not upset with the other’s choice at all. I hope more Armenian women become independent and eventually participate not only in voting, but also in being voted in.

Even my 4 ½-year-old niece was involved in the elections and lobbied, I should note unsuccessfully, her Mom to vote for a particular party that she liked (I am glad she can’t read my blog yet).

I guess we all should be glad that another country in the world is becoming more democratic. Maybe Armenia’s future is much brighter than we think it is. 

There are many things I would like to do this weekend, but if I had the opportunity to travel I would go to Boston to attend the “Armenians and the Left Symposium.”

Edik Baghdasaryan, editor of www.Hetq.am, Jeffrey Tufenkian, president of Armenian Forests NGO, Halil Berktay, history professor from Istanbul, and many others  will most likely generate a fascinating discussion from deforestation to Armenian-Turkish relations.

So those of you have them chance of living in or leaving for Boston, make sure to have a meaningful Saturday.

You can learn more about the symposium by visiting their website at http://www.armeniansandtheleft.com/.