ARMY AND CHURCH ARE BASIS OF CONFIDENCE IN YEREVAN AND PRESIDENT, ARMY AND
MASS MEDIA – IN BAKU AND TBILISI

YEREVAN, December 10 (Noyan Tapan). On December 9, the Armenian branch
of the Caucasus Research Resource Center (CRRC) published the results
of the social-demographic research simulteneously conducted in
Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. The purpose of CRRC is to contribute
to cooperation of specialists of social sciences of the three
countries of the South Caucasus and to establish favorable conditions
for their work. CRRC was established by the “Eurasia” Foundation, the
Carnegie Corporation of New York (Chairman – Vardan Grigorian), the
World Bank and other donors. The CRRC branches of Armenia, Georgia and
Azerbaijan conducted public opinion polls among randomly selected
1,500 farms of their capitals, collecting data on demograpy, political
activity, social institutes and crimes. Sociologist Samvel Manukian
presented the results of the research conducted on the basis of these
data. According to him, 60% of the population of Yerevan doesn’t
approve of the tendencies of the country’s development, meanwhile 23%
and 47% of the population of Tbilisi and Baku, respectively, is
discontent with the tendencies of the development of their
countries. The army and the church are the basis of confidence in
Yerevan, and the President, the army and mass media – in Baku and
Tbilisi. The level of crime is higher in Tbilisi, where 14.7% of
respondents was witnesses of the crime or victims. In Yerevan and Baku
this index is less three-fold, making 4.1% and 3.6%,
respectively. Lala Cholakian, the regional Director of CRRC, mentioned
that the purpose of the program is to expose the possibilities of the
effective research cooperation of the three countries and indicate the
spheres, where the scientific potential of each of the three countries
will be more useful for the universal progress. In 2005, CRRC will
give grants to separate researchers of the South Caucasus and small
research groups. According to Heghine Manasian, Director of the CRRC
Armenian branch, the research program should be dedicated to one of
the countries of the South Caucasus or their comparative analysis with
the application of the data available in other CRRC offices. It is
expected that 15 grants, whose maximum amount makes 2,000 dollars,
will be given.