CIVILITAS FOUNDATION REPORT ON CRISIS AND OPPORTUNITY IN ARMENIA

Lragir.am
17:27:11 – 26/12/2008

On December 26 the Civilitas Foundation presented its first annual
report on Armenia in the context of internal and external events in
2008. The president of the foundation and the former foreign minister
of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan said the report is a hookup of analysis,
conclusions, observations and recommendations by about twenty
co-authors who made an overview of Armenia from the inside. This is
the purpose of the report which is going to be annual. The authors
of the report think that besides the reports by foreign organizations
and experts we need an overview from the inside to evaluate our lives
and outline the ways of development. In this sense, the initiative
of Civilitas is unprecedented.

The report entitled Crisis and Opportunity, which covers global
and regional events, the internal political situation and economy
in Armenia, was presented today at the Yerevan Hotel. Politicians,
civil society activists, foreign diplomats and reporters were invited
to the event. Vardan Oskanyan said people will express their opinion
on the report after reading it, as well as through press, and today
Civilitas held a discussion of the issues covered in the report.

Opening the discussion, Vardan Oskanyan said March 1 was followed by
a deep crisis and tension, which tends to aggravate, he thinks. Is
the ruling coalition aware of=2 0this and does it take steps, Vardan
Oskanyan asked Armen Rustamyan, the chair of the National Assembly
committee of foreign affairs? He said there are elements of crisis
which were noticed even before March 1, during the presidential
election. According to Armen Rustamyan, it was obvious before the
election that Armenia needs a new time but the country was not ready
for the new time, for the second generation reform, and the roots go
back to the beginning of independence.

Vardan Oskanyan said we can speak about the past but the discourse
that we cannot go on like this was in the past as well. According to
him, the problem is if now the government is aware that the tension
and problems are culminating, and Armenia may be deprived of voting
right in the PACE, and if the government takes action.

Hovanes Igityan, a member of the Armenian National Congress,
director of the EU chamber of trade in Armenia, said three things
are important for Armenia: inner consolidation, confidence in the
government and the international reputation of Armenia. According to
Igityan, Armenia lacks all the three, and the problem is that Europe
already views us as a country of risk, which has its consequences.

Vardan Oskanyan said unfortunately the parliament does not reflect the
moods of the society, and in the recent presidential election it became
known that 50 percent of the society supports the opposition. Oskanyan
says he thi nks a new election is not a way out since the political
system is not ready but says he does not feel that the government
is aware of the problem of the parliament and takes steps to prevent
the same picture in the next election.

The ex-prime minister Armen Darbinyan says the problem is
that political process takes to the street. Darbinyan says the
internal situation does not allow Armenia to be a powerful regional
state. According to Armen Darbinyan, the situation aggravates the
impact of the economic crisis.

In answer to observations of inadequacy of the parliament to the
situation, Member of Parliament Armen Rustamyan said he does not
want to act as the advocate of the parliament but this parliament is
the result of the deficient electoral system, and the situation will
not change unless all the political forces display political will,
and the society underscores its vote.

In this connection, Vardan Oskanyan said words are not enough. The
ex-foreign minister underlined that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun, for
instance, did not become opposition after the election to fill in
the gap of ideological opposition, which would be the right behavior,
and preferred to join the coalition. Armen Rustamyan said in a country
where the opposition has no opportunity to work the only way of acting
is to be in the government.

Vardan Oskanyan noted that in Armenia there is an extreme perception
of the opposition, and peopl e are not aware that the opposition must
foster development through dialectic contact with the government,
and the leader of the opposition must meet and shake hands with the
head of state. On these words Hovanes Igityan said the impression
is that the talk is about Luxembourg. According to Hovanes Igityan,
in Armenia the phrase "transition period" is used to justify mistakes
and drawbacks on the one hand and on the other hand, transition has
become a status.

It is impossible to find points in common in Armenia unless the
government is unable to view issues from the point of view of the
opposition and vice versa, Vardan Oskanyan said. He underscored the
importance of free press to the change of the situation in Armenia,
noting that he thinks the president must meet with the leaders of
the TV companies and tell them to be free.

Armen Darbinyan said the press cannot be free unless the economy
is free.

As to the economy in general, Armen Darbinyan is pessimistic. He
thinks that the Armenian economy may really benefit from the global
crisis thanks to its small size but it takes bold steps rather than
what is being done now. Armen Darbinyan says the steps that are
being taken now will lead Armenia to the state that was in 1993,
the period of cheap imports. Vardan Oskanyan said it is difficult to
say what percentage of economic regress is due to the global crisis,
and what percentage is o ur problems. According to Oskanyan, this
correlation is at least 50 percent.

Our internal problems matter more.

The hall also had an opportunity to participate in the discussion
of the crisis in Armenia. The political scientist and ex-consul
Ruben Hakobyan said he thinks Armenia is in a great, deep crisis,
and the "minor" global crisis adds to it. The sociologist Lyudmila
Harutiunyan thinks Armenia is in a deadlock rather than a crisis,
the society has lost hope, and if now the opposition retreats,
it will be the final defeat of the society. Lyudmila Harutiunyan
calls the government to be prudent, and the political forces which
"try to keep somewhere in between the government and the opposition
thereby serve the government", Lyudmila Harutiunyan says.

The ex-spokesman for the foreign minister and the public affairs
officer of the Armenian National Congress Vladimir Karapetyan said
there is a crisis of truth in Armenia, evidence to which is the
failure to reveal the wrongdoers of the slaughter of March 1 and
the opposition activists and leaders deprived of liberty and kept
hostage. And Vardan Khachatryan from the Heritage Party said in
Armenia none of the problems will be solved unless three components
are present: independent financial assistance, independent courts and
independent press. The chair of the National Assembly Committee of
state and legal affairs, Republican Davit Harutiunyan said the question
i s what should be done to have independent press, independent courts,
lasting political will of the government.

All the participants of the discussion, independent from their
points of view, thanked the Civilitas Foundation for organizing
the discussion, and expect that discussions will continue, not only
in Yerevan but also in the regions, to talks to the society and to
transform the society.