MILLENNIUM CHALLENGES – A TOOL OF BLACKMAIL
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
17 Dec 2008
Armenia

Running ahead of the events, the press supporting the Armenian
Pan-National Movement has recently reported that the Council of
Directors of the "Millennium Challenges Corporation" discussed
the issue Armenia on December 11 and gave our country a "bad"
mark. That means neither rejecting nor delaying the regular "transfer",
because the country does not comply with the criteria of "democratic
governance".

In the language of the revolutionaries, this means that Armenia
refuses to close the "March 1" case and release the organizers and
perpetrators of the mass disorders without holding a trial. They
even ify the amount of the rejected or delayed sum: around 7 thousand
dollars which is envisaged for the reconstruction of rural roads and
the renovation of the irrigation system.

Whereas, as stated by ARA HOVSEPYAN, Head of the Armenian Office of
the "Millennium Challenges" corporation, the Council of Directors
couldn’t have delayed or rejected the request submitted by Armenia
for the simple reason that the committee held its regular session or
rather, the meeting devoted to "the course of the implementation of
the reforms initiated by the RA Government over the recent months"
on December the 11th.

And the board of managers of t he "Millennium Challenges-Armenia"
non-commercial state organization submitted its request for the 6.8
million Dollars (to be allocated for the first trimester of 2009)
on December the 12th.

That’s to say there has not yet been any discussion over the issue
whether or not to satisfy the request. The discussion is to be held
during the coming week, and the decision will be made by the 24th
of December.

As mentioned yesterday by Nerses Yeritsyan, Minister of Economy,
Armenia has no serious problems in connection with two of the three
groups of issues to be evaluated by the committee (quality of life,
economic policy, management of natural resources etc.), and the main
target of the corporation’s concern are the post-electoral developments
imposed on the country by the radical society, i.e. "violence,
imposition of a state of emergency, mass arrests, restrictions on
rallies and freedom of the press."

It is, by the way, with such "serious concerns" that the corporation
refused to allocate means from the foundation for hiring contractors
within the frameworks of the road-construction program (envisaging the
construction of road with a total length of 273 km.). In response,
the Government of Armenia proposed to allocate 16.8 million Dollars
for starting the preliminary stage of the program. And the "Millennium
Challenges" corporation generously agreed to that and gave Armen ia
"additional time" for improving itself with the hope of "seeing
signals" testifying to Armenia’s compliance with its obligations.

Actually, instead of receiving funding from the "Millennium
Challenges" corporation, the Government itself "provides funding"
to the organization. Furthermore, as reported by the Armenian office
of the corporation, the above-mentioned sum of 16.8 Dollars "has not
yet been exhausted". That’s to say, Armenia can still get by without
the funding of the corporation.

In such circumstances, there arise several questions.

For instance, how long should the Government ask different
organizations for help, being well-aware of the fact that the funding
may be suspended at any moment with political considerations? Besides,
if the Government refuses to proceed with the activities discontinued
by the Directors of the "Millennium Challenges" corporation, what are
they going to do with the contractors? Are they going to terminate
the contracts on grounds that the owners of the sums have regretted
about their plans and do not care whether the road, irrigation network,
or the rural infrastructures will be renovated?

Perhaps, it’s really time to rely only on our potentials? Especially
considering that the Armenian businessmen of the Diaspora and
especially Russia have promised and are ready to make investments in
the amount several milli on dollars in Armenia. And what’s more, they
do not advance and preconditions and do not blackmail the authorities;
they do not threaten to punish the Armenians, teaching them how
to live. Neither do they think whether to give the neo-Bolsheviks
permission for organizing spontaneous rallies or to restrict their
"constitutional" right to stage a coup and turn the centre of the
capital city into a battlefield.

And last but not the least: how long are the radicals going to fix
their gaze on the West, praying that they would apply sanctions
against us, and jump with joy every time they hear someone say a
couple of bitter words about Armenia?