Пресса об Армении

[Злодиюка]

а под сатаной кто имеется ввиду? не ЛТП ли?

[nevajno]

не знаю кто, это NEVAJNO B) тут скорее дело в принципе

понимаете суть демократии не выборы, они не самоцель. просто есть прямая связь между плохими выборами и плохой жизнью...

избранному с нарушениями незачем думать об избирателях, если он уверен, что в следующий раз он изберется тем же путем. надеюсь вы понимаете простую взаимосвязь.

вот и получается, что честно избранный сатана будет стремится работать на благо страны, чтоб переизбратся, и наоборот, нечестно избранный святой будет работать на благо тех, кто помог ему сфальсифицировать выборы и превратится в .... правильно - в САТАНУ!

[Злодиюка]

ну

наврное так категорично тоже не надо

сОтОна, зная что при всём своём сОтОнизме всё равно избирается - эта тоже, мягко говоря, опасный субъект

[Гость]

Пестни разных идеологически правильных групп во славу Сотоны.

www.sotona.ru

[ese]

Читайте обзор на Регнуме, особено полезно форумчанам не живущим в Армении.

Понравилось: "Лучше уж честно избранный Сатана, чем святой, избранный посредством насилия и фальсификаций" ©"Аравот"

http://www.regnum.ru/news/967952.html

[free]

холодный душ от "Нью Йорк Таймс" - душевные разговоры для СС и РК.

"Демократия в Армении уплывает из рук", или угроза авторитаризма.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...377E034C409.ASP

[free]

русская пресса о ереванских событиях

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...272A70D3B3A.ASP

[ZepStam]

холодный душ от "Нью Йорк Таймс" - душевные разговоры для СС и РК.

"Демократия в Армении уплывает из рук", или угроза авторитаризма.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...377E034C409.ASP

[free]

Оригинал статьи - это редакторская колонка и ни какая не реклама.

Editorial

Dark Days in Armenia

Published: March 7, 2008

The democracy that Armenians dreamed of during their long decades under Moscow’s yoke is slipping away. After opponents challenged last month’s flawed presidential election, the government imposed a brutal state of emergency. At least eight people are now dead, independent news outlets throttled and all protests silenced. President Bush and other Western leaders need to make clear to Armenia’s government that such behavior is unacceptable and will jeopardize future relations. Compared to post-Soviet tyrannies like Belarus or Uzbekistan, Armenia may not look so bad. That is why it is so important to halt this slide into authoritarianism before it is too late.

Go to The Board » Official election results handed an overwhelming victory to the ruling party candidate, Serge Sargsyan. International monitors declared that while the overall outcome appeared fair, there were serious problems with the vote count. The protests that followed only turned violent after police began beating demonstrators.

Witnesses told our colleague, Sabrina Tavernise, that government authorities planted guns and grenades among the sleeping protestors last Saturday morning. Then, claiming that they were thwarting an attempted coup, police attacked the opposition camp. The next day, the outgoing president sent tanks into the streets, banned demonstrations and ordered Armenian news organizations to relay only information provided by his government. Local stations can no longer use the Armenian language programs produced by foreign broadcasters including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

That drew an admirably strong protest from Washington’s Broadcasting Board of Governors, the independent federal agency that supervises these stations, while the State Department has expressed its concern over the death toll. Their words would carry more weight if President Bush added his voice. Armenia, embroiled in a lengthy standoff with neighboring Azerbaijan, is relatively isolated in its own region and especially values its good relations with the United States.

This is not a case of pure democratic virtue against pure authoritarian evil. The defeated opposition leader, Levon Ter-Petrossian, is a former president who in the 1990s sent armored cars into the streets to crush demonstrators protesting his electoral manipulations.

He insists, without credible evidence, that he won this election. And once government forces set off last weekend’s violence, some of those who turned out in Mr. Ter-Petrossian’s behalf seemed more interested in looting nearby shops. The main responsibility lies with Armenia’s government leaders, and it is to them that the White House must address its protests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/07/opinion/07fri2.html?hp

[free]

Armenia

Troubling news from the Caucasus

Mar 6th 2008 | MOSCOW

From The Economist print edition

Bloodshed in Armenia worries both Russia and the West

THE day after Dmitry Medvedev's presidential victory, Moscow's leading papers turned their attention away from the long-predicted result to the unexpected bloodshed in Armenia. At least eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition supporters protesting against alleged fraud in the country's presidential elections. “An election won with some blood”, ran the headline in Kommersant, a leading business daily.

Small, complicated and with names that are hard to spell, Armenia has long been out of the mainstream of world news. Yet what happens in this country has implications not only for the whole of the Caucasus, a region vital for Europe's energy security, but also for Russia. The story of rigged elections, corrupt officials and dead protesters is particularly unnerving for Russia, a country that prides itself on its stability.

On February 19th Armenia held presidential elections. The incumbent prime minister, Serzh Sarkisian, assisted by a biased media and occasional stuffing of the ballot boxes, won 53% of the vote. If the election had been conducted fairly, there is a good chance he would have faced a second round and a possible defeat. But Mr Sarkisian had the backing of Robert Kocharian, the current president, which swung the result. (Mr Kocharian, it is said, fancies the job of prime minister—not unlike his Russian counterpart.)

International observers did not cover themselves in glory. The Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe pointed out many shortcomings, yet said in an initial statement that the ballot was “mostly in line with the country's international commitments”.

The opposition, led by Levon Ter-Petrosian, an academic and Armenia's first president, demanded a re-run of the election. His supporters took to the streets. Mr Ter-Petrosian is no democratic angel. In 1996 he is widely believed to have rigged the presidential election in his favour. Still, those who voted for him this time did so largely in protest against the local mafia, corruption and unemployment now associated with Mr Kocharian.

For 11 days the government put up with the peaceful protest. But on March 1st, the police moved in on the pretext that protesters were carrying firearms, which some observers say were planted. Mr Ter-Petrosian was placed under de facto house arrest and the crowd was dispersed. Predictably it regrouped and gathered in front of the French embassy in Yerevan. Mr Kocharian sent in the army, and the area was soon lit up with tracer fire.

Eight people were killed, cars were torched and shops were looted. Many protesters were armed with stones and metal poles. But the responsibility ultimately lies with the government which allowed the situation to deteriorate into chaos. The state of emergency now imposed by Mr Kocharian for 20 days, including a media blackout and the arrest of opposition figures, may temporarily suppress the protests, but it is unlikely to resolve the underlying problems.

These include corruption, low living standards and an economic blockade by Azerbaijan and Turkey because of Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian-populated enclave inside Azerbaijan that was conquered by Armenia in 1994. This conflict has long been frozen. But three days after the violence in Yerevan, Armenian and Azerbaijani forces were involved in their worst firefight in a decade. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan accuse each other of starting the skirmish, which caused a disputed number of deaths on both sides.

Claiming that Kosovo's declaration of independence last month has emboldened Armenian separatists, Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliev, has given warning that he is buying weapons to retake Nagorno-Karabakh by force, if necessary. A renewed war could destabilise the region and jeopardise a strategic oil pipeline to Turkey that runs only 15 kilometres (ten miles) from the ceasefire line.

Nagorno-Karabakh remains an open sore. Mr Ter-Petrosian's downfall in 1998 was mainly caused by his hints of a more flexible approach to a peace settlement with Azerbaijan. Both Mr Kocharian and Mr Sarkisian are from Nagorno-Karabakh and fought in the war, but they have done little to move towards peace. In a recent commentary in the Washington Post, Mr Ter-Petrosian dismissed the notion that only hardliners from Nagorno-Karabakh can solve the conflict. Indeed, he argues that Mr Sarkisian, whose presidency is now marred by bloodshed and incompetence, will be even less able to govern.

Russia and the West have an interest in Armenia's stability, and they need to work to maintain it. This could be Mr Medvedev's first foreign test as president.

http://www.economist.com/world/europe/disp...ory_id=10809006

[nevajno]

хмм, не далее как вчера в одном из постов писал о том, что дрейфуем где-то между Беларусью и Узбекистаном. Теперь вот Нью Йорк Таймс о том же...

истина где-то рядом

[free]

Чешский "Тол"

Soviet Armenia

by TOL

7 March 2008

By muzzling the press and dissenters, the regime in Yerevan fails another test of democracy.

It’s a familiar refrain. The government-run media lavish attention on the heir-apparent and ignore opposition candidates. Public employees are given not-so-subtle reminders before election day of who butters their bread. The political elite dismiss outside criticism. And to no one’s surprise, the anointed successor walks away with the presidency.

It sounds like Russia, which held its sham presidential election on Sunday. But it also describes Armenia, a former Soviet republic that still has close ties to Moscow. The difference is that the aftermath of yet another faulty Armenian election was marked by a deadly crackdown on demonstrators and an assault on human rights.

Armenians are all too familiar with tragedy and dictatorship. The feisty nation endured invasions, genocide and 70 years of communism imposed on it by outsiders. But the years since independence in 1991 have been marked chiefly by problems of Armenia’s own making. The country is still paying the price for its costly turf war with Azerbaijan in the early 1990s. Its belligerent relationship with Turkey damages its economic potential. And despite huge investments from its well-connected diaspora and do-good aid programs, it is still a nation sabotaged by corrupt, clannish, and sometimes violent politics.

It all starts at the top, where President Robert Kocharian is about to hand power to his longtime ally, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. In the 19 February presidential contest, the prime minister defeated his main challenger, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, by a 30-point margin. Ter-Petrosian’s supporters immediately declared the election a fraud and took to the streets.

International election monitors reported that hopes for a clean contest were marred by bias in the government media, evidence that public employees were compelled to vote for the ruling Republican Party, and incidents of violence. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reported several attacks on campaign workers and the offices of Ter-Petrosian just days before the election. The OSCE said the attacks contributed to “the increasingly tense pre-election environment.”

OMINOUS WARNING

It was an ominous warning of things to come. After days of demonstrations, security forces attacked protesters in central Yerevan last weekend. In the ensuing chaos, as many as eight people were killed and dozens of others – including police officers – were wounded. Human Rights Watch, along with other monitors, called on the government to investigate what several eyewitnesses said was excessive use of force. A glance at the websites of media and bloggers intrepid enough to report the incidents, such as the Armenian investigative journalism site HETQ Online, ArmeniaNow, and TOL’s Armenian Patchwork blog, shows menacing security forces, badly beaten victims, the hulks of burned-out police vehicles, and streets littered with debris.

Kocharian declared a 20-day state of emergency on 1 March, banning the right of assembly and muzzling all but “official information.” In a speech to the nation that harkened back to Soviet crackdowns on dissent, he accused protesters of “illegal activities” and challenging “stability” and “constitutional order.” This week, the Sarkisian-controlled parliament waived immunity from prosecution for four opposition lawmakers accused of fomenting unrest.

The government has a duty to maintain order, and in a country like Armenia that is too often given to Wild West politics, it is no easy task. But people in democracies have a right to be informed, to express themselves, to assemble, to complain about their government, and to demonstrate against their public servants. Strong democracies can withstand criticism and dissent, but strong democracies are not built from the top down.

TOP HEAVY AND UNACCOUNTABLE

Armenia’s constitution – which vests inordinate power at the top – is partly to blame for the country’s current crisis. Its political culture is another. Stephan H. Astourian, who heads the Armenian studies program at the University of California at Berkeley, has described the party system in Armenia as one of “a limited geographic scope, ideological fuzziness, and weak institutionalization. These are essentially personalistic organizations, instruments for the ambitions of a more or less well-known individual and his clientele.”

Donors also contribute to the crisis. They tend to chart Armenia’s economic gains as a sign of overall progress without demanding more accountability. A 2005 report from the U.S. Agency for International Development suggests there isn’t much to show for the millions of dollars Washington pumps into democracy-building and anti-corruption programs each year:

“Although Armenia has been independent for almost fifteen years, autocratic mentalities and practices remain embedded. The government is dominated by the executive branch and is without meaningful checks and balances. The judiciary is not independent, and rulings are politically biased. A symbiotic relationship between political and business elites has bred endemic corruption and severely hampers the ability of opposition parties to raise funds or access the electronic media.”

The opposition, such as it is, has offered little as an alternative. Ter-Petrosian himself was accused of cronyism during the economic privatizations in the early years of the republic, and of rigging his 1996 re-election as president. Two years later he was forced to cede power to his prime minister, Kocharian, but returned from political obscurity a decade later determined to reclaim his old office. He denies inciting his supporters, but he was back in court this week challenging the official results rather than seeking an end to the crisis.

The president’s job would not be easy for any leader in an isolated, bitterly divided society where too much blood has been spilled already. If he is to succeed where Kocharian and Ter-Petrosian both failed, Sarkisian will have to make peace with neighboring nations, heal the domestic wounds, create a public-service ethic, and decentralize his own authority.

The president-elect should start by demanding that Kocharian lift the emergency decree and remove the shackles from the media. Times of crisis are when people most need information, not government-imposed silence.

http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdL..._LS3=0&ST_max=3

[free]

Armenia: Authorities Advance Conspiracy Theory

03/07/08

Armenian leaders are now casting the March 1 bloodshed in Yerevan as the product of an international conspiracy that sought the revolutionary overthrow of the existing political order.

Speaking at a March 7 news conference in Yerevan, Armenian Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepian asserted that “conspiratorial foreign forces” played a role in initiating the armed clashes between anti-government demonstrators and state security forces that left at least eight people dead. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. “Many factors related to the [March 1] events … provide a basis for such a conclusion,” Ovsepian added, according to an account published by the Russian daily Izvestiya.

Meanwhile, in an interview published by Rosssiiskaya Gazeta on March 7, Serzh Sarkisian -- Armenia’s prime minister, and, according to the official results of the February 19 election, outgoing President Robert Kocharian’s successor -- claimed that the anti-government protesters were intent on toppling the government. “It’s fair to say that an attempt to organize a ‘color revolution’ in Armenia really took place,” Sarkisian insisted.

Overall, 350 individuals have been interrogated in connection with a criminal probe being carried out by officials, Ovsepian said. So far, 53 individuals have been formally charged in connection with the March 1 violence. Another 16 have been detained and are under suspicion of wrongdoing, Ovsepian added.

Meanwhile, two members of parliament, Sasson Mikaelian and Khachatur Sukisian, have apparently gone into hiding, Ovsepian announced. The two, who are suspected of playing a role in organizing the anti-government protests, were recently stripped of their parliamentary immunity.

The government version is contradicted by eyewitness accounts of the March 1 events. Participants in the anti-government protests insist that security forces opened fire on a largely unarmed crowd. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. In addition, the preliminary findings of Armenia’s ombudsman have indicated that the Kocharian administration initiated the sequence of events that led directly to the bloodshed. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

State of emergency restrictions have hampered the ability of independent news organizations, both inside and outside Armenia, to gather information, thereby hindering the ability to verify the competing versions of events. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The United States and key members of the European Union have not challenged the Kocharian administration’s handling of the crisis, even though as part of its all-out effort to stifle a free press, the Armenian government pulled the plug on Armenian-language broadcasts of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. In a March 7 editorial titled “Dark Days in Armenia,” the New York Times called on President George W. Bush, along with European leaders, to “make clear to Armenia’s government that such behavior is unacceptable and will jeopardize future relations.” A clear signal of disapproval is needed in order to halt what the editorial described as a “slide into authoritarianism” by CIS states.

Amid the relative silence of the United States and EU, Armenian authorities have started to vigorously attack the few Western officials who have gone on record as criticizing the Armenian government’s behavior. One such official is Terry Davis, the secretary-general of the Council of Europe, who on March 3 called for a quick end to the state of emergency. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Without referring to Davis or other critics by name, Victor Sogomonian, Kocharian's press secretary, pointedly told outsiders to, in effect, mind their own business. “We must clearly realize that it is not foreign officials, but rather [Armenian] authorities that are in charge of the republic’s security,” Sogomonian said.

http://www.eurasianet.org/armenia08/news/030708.shtml

[free]

OSCE Reports Flawed Recounts, ‘Implausible’ Vote Results In Armenia

Raising more questions about the freedom and fairness of Armenia’s presidential election, Western election observers said on Friday that vote recounts in polling stations across the country were not conducted properly and exposed errors in official vote results.

In their first post-election interim report, the observers representing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe also noted “anomalies” in the results from other electoral precincts. They said the reported problems will affect the OSCE mission’s final assessment of the Armenian authorities’ conduct of the February 19 vote. It is due to be made public by May.

In their preliminary assessment made public on February 20, the more than 300 monitors concluded that the election was administered “mostly in accordance” with democratic standards. But they also reported serious irregularities during the counting of ballots in 16 percent of the polling stations visited by them on election day.

More such irregularities were exposed during recounts subsequently conducted in 153 of Armenia’s 1,922 precincts. OSCE observers were present at many of those recounts.

“The majority of recounts observed showed discrepancies and mistakes in the original count, some of which were significant and raise questions over the political impartiality of PECs (precinct election commissions) and TECs (district election commissions),” read their report. It also cited two Yerevan precincts where the recounts were disrupted by government loyalists.

One of those precincts was stormed by a group of men who “forced TEC members and other authorized persons including candidate proxies, journalists, and an OSCE/ODIHR observer to leave the TEC premises, while police officers passively stood by.” In the other Yerevan precinct, the report said, an unknown man stole an envelope containing valid ballots marked in favor of opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian.

The observers also pointed to “implausibly high turnout” reported by election commissions in Yerevan and other parts of the country. In virtually all of those cases Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian got more than 90 percent of the vote, compared with his national total of 52.8 percent reported by the Central Election Commission (CEC).

The OSCE report singled out four villages in the Goris area in southeastern Armenia where Sarkisian got over 99 per cent of the vote, with a turnout of 97 to 99.5 per cent. “Even taking into account that Serzh Sarkisian has strong familial links to the Goris area results from the four PECs are striking,” it said.

The report also criticized the CEC for effectively ignoring complaints received from Ter-Petrosian and other candidates after polling day. “In the post election period, the CEC received several complaints; its handling of these did not provide complainants with an effective remedy and raises concern about its commitment to ensure the protection of citizens’ electoral rights,” it said.

http://www.armenialiberty.org/armeniarepor...46774F519FA.ASP

[free]

Canada urges Armenia to lift state of emergency

OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's foreign affairs minister on Wednesday urged Armenia to lift a state of emergency declared on the weekend, and respect "fundamental freedoms" of protestors.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier said in a statement: "It is the democratic right of people everywhere to gather and express their views so long as this is done in a peaceful manner."

"We urge the government of Armenia to respect these fundamental freedoms by lifting the state of emergency as soon as possible," he said.

As well, Bernier added: "Canada urges Armenians of all political affiliations to seek solutions to their current differences within the framework of their democratic institutions."

Armenia's President Robert Kocharian declared the 20-day state of emergency in Yerevan on Saturday after eight people died in street battles between riot police and opposition supporters protesting the result of a presidential election.

The opposition claims the election was rigged to ensure victory for Serzh Sarkisian, Kocharian's hand-picked successor.

A mediator from the Western-led Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said Tuesday that talks to resolve the crisis would be impossible until the end of emergency rule, which bans protests and censors the media.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g6Poad...fzCHHMlEmyGzrqQ