PRO-GOVERNMENT YOUTH GROUP RELIES ON DIRTY TRICKS TO FIGHT CORRUPTION
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Gayane Abrahamyan
March 24 2009

A photo campaign launched by the pro-government youth group Miasin
(Together) has touched off a debate in Armenia about the nature of
justice. Heightening passions on both sides of the question is the
fact that the debate revolves around one of the country’s most
pervasive social ills — corruption.

Yerevan residents on March 12 were surprised to see large, color
photos of some 30 well-known professors hung on Yerevan State
University buildings, near metro stations and at other busy
gathering-places around the city. The photos all featured a blazing
caption: "Bribe Takers."

Some passers-by studied the faces with curiosity; others tore down the
photos and called their appearance "shameful."

"This reminds me of the Stalin regime of 1937. Those were times when
people were charged without any grounds," said an angry Yerevan State
University Rector Aram Simonian at a news conference the same day.
Few Armenians argue publicly with the group’s intent to battle
corruption. But many are questioning Miasin’s methods.

No proof of wrongdoing has been produced against those depicted in the
photos. Critics have also been quick to point out that some of those
targeted in the anti-corruption campaign have been falsely
accused. The most glaring example is Armenia’s ambassador to Egypt,
Hrachya Poladian, who is among those who made the photo line-up. In a
March 13 statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that
Poladian had never worked as a professor and urged Miasin to "be brave
enough to ask publicly for the diplomat’s pardon."

Miasin’s 24-year-old leader, Hakob Hakobian, described the incident as
"a simple mix-up" which the group plans to correct. "We are not the
prosecutor’s office. We are just a youth movement that aimed to simply
[call attention to] the problem and we will continue to [do] it," he
said.

One opposition member, however, counters that the group is, in fact,
acting as the prosecutor’s office. "Taking bribes is a criminal charge
that needs to be proved before a person’s portrait is hung in a public
place, and you call the person a bribe taker, or those responsible
have to be punished for libel," said Vardan Khachatrian, a member of
parliament for the opposition Heritage Party and a theology lecturer
at Yerevan State University.

Miasin claims that it came up with the list of professors based on an
anonymous survey held at Yerevan State University, Yerevan State
Pedagogical University, Yerevan State Economics University, and the
Medical Institute. In an interview with EurasiaNet, however, Hakobian
could not recall key survey details, such as how many people
participated in the survey.

Amalia Kostanian, executive director of the Yerevan office of
anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International, described
Miasin’s actions as "a dark story lacking any transparency."

"They [Miasin activists] first should have made public the results and
the methodology used in the survey," Kostanian said in reference to
the photo displays. "It’s unacceptable in the way and with the
inaccuracy it was done."

Yerevan State University Rector Simonian argued that cracking down on
corrupt professors should be left to the university itself. "We took
and we will take all measures to fight corruption and anticipate
getting constructive support," he said. Ten instructors have been
fired from the university since 2007 for taking bribes "and serious
disciplinary offenses."

Simonian put the blame for the corruption problem, in part, on low
salaries. "A professor at Yerevan State University gets 160,000 drams
($430) [per month], whereas [many of] his students come to classes in
cars that cost half a million of dollars," he fumed. "These people may
have weak points and, seeing the students want just grades, not
knowledge, they may take a step amounting to a crime. But I assure you
there are very few who do that."

At first, some Yerevan State University students suspected a political
motivation to the photo campaign. "Many of us thought at first that
there is some political underpinning here, that the professors are
pro-opposition, if the [campaign] organizer is Miasin," recounted
Hasmik Muradian, a 20-year-old sociology student. "But then, we found
pictures of those who used to threaten to expel us from the
university, or not allow us to take exams, if we went to the
opposition’s rallies."

Although Miasin’s anti-corruption efforts may not have been
coordinated with the government, available evidence supports the
impression that top officials were aware of Miasin’s intent to wage an
aggressive campaign.

The youth movement first appeared last spring, as a counterbalance to
the pro-opposition group Hima (Now), which organized demonstrations
after the disputed 2008 presidential election. [For background, see
the Eurasia Insight archive]. In a clear show of support, President
Serzh Sargsyan turned up at Miasin’s one-year anniversary celebration
on February 21.

In November of 2008, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan expressed public
support for Miasin and its plan "to disclose all corruption cases in
universities with the help of university students, and to make public
the names of all corrupt professors, other university employees and
students."

Yerevan Police Chief Nerses Nazarian told reporters that although
Miasin’s choice of tactics "is not very nice," police would not be
taking action to prevent the posting of the photo displays because
such action "took place late at night."

For now, most professors featured in Miasin’s photo line-ups remain
silent. In an interview with EurasiaNet, one of the accused, Yerevan
State University Law Faculty Dean Gagik Ghazinian, said he has no
plans to sue for libel. "The first reason is that I don’t want
speculation about my name again. I don’t want to become a participant
in that show again, and, secondly, I am not sure the court will be
unbiased," Ghazinian said. "Obviously, this movement has serious
leverage."

Political scientist Karen Simonian seconds that observation. Simonian,
who is not related to Yerevan State University Rector Aram Simonian,
attributes the silence of the accused professors down to shock. "The
blow came from such an unexpected direction that they don’t know how
powerful the force is standing behind it and how far it can go,"
Simonian said.

Editor’s Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for the ArmeniaNow.com
weekly in Yerevan.
Posted March 24, 2009 © Eurasianet