CRISIS GROUP REPORT - ARMENIA: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR STATESMANSHIP

Yerevan/Tbilisi/Istanbul/Brussels - June 25, 2012
Unless Armenia's next presidential election is fair and gives its winner a strong political mandate, the government will lack the legitimacy needed to implement comprehensive reforms, tackle corruption and negotiate a peaceful end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Armenia: An Opportunity for Statesmanship, the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the challenges before a pivotal presidential vote early next year that will determine whether the country has shed its more than a decade and a half of fraud-tainted electoral history. Whoever is elected must accelerate implementation of much-needed governance and economic reforms and help restore momentum to diplomatic efforts to tackle the long-running territorial conflict with Azerbaijan that poses a danger to regional stability.
"Another election perceived as seriously flawed would further distract from peace talks and severe economic problems", says Lawrence Sheets, Crisis Group's Caucasus Project Director. "The likely consequences would then be even more citizens opting out of democratic politics, as well as increased emigration".
May's competitive parliamentary elections produced positive signs, with more balanced media coverage and widely respected rights of free assembly, expression and movement. They also exposed longstanding issues. Widespread abuse of administrative resources; inflated voters lists; vote-buying; lack of sufficient redress for election violations; and reports of multiple voting have damaged trust in government bodies and institutions. It is crucial that the February 2013 vote, in which President Serzh Sargsyan will likely seek a second term, becomes "the cleanest elections in Armenian history", as he had already promised the 2012 polls would be.
Though the president initially took bold steps, most noteworthy among them an attempt to normalize relations with Turkey, broader change has been slow. Political courage is needed to overhaul a deeply entrenched system in which big business and politics are intertwined, and transparency is lacking.
The economy remains unhealthily reliant on financial remittances from Armenians abroad. Rates of emigration and seasonal migration out of the country are alarmingly high. There have been few serious efforts to combat high-level corruption. The executive branch still enjoys overwhelming, virtually unchecked, powers. The judicial system is perceived as neither independent nor competent, and mechanisms to hold authorities accountable are largely ineffective. Media freedom is inadequate, with a glaring lack of diversity in television, from which most Armenians get their news.
To address these shortcomings and establish the basis for a free and fair election, the president should take the lead in encouraging authorities to pass a new criminal code, hold officials involved in corruption and elections abuses to account and increase civilian control of the police and independence of the judiciary. International partners should provide technical and financial assistance and hold the government accountable for any backsliding in reform.
"President Sargsyan has a window of opportunity, in advance of the 2013 elections, to demonstrate statesmanship and make Armenia a better place to live", says Sabine Freizer, Crisis Group's Europe Program Director. "A failure to embrace both immediate and long-term structural reforms would neither capitalize on Armenia's strengths nor make for a good presidential campaign strategy".
(The International Crisis Group is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict)

<< | Home | >>

Translate

RSS © Hetq

Headlines for June 26, 2012

AZERBAIJANI AUTHORITIES ARREST INDEPENDENT EDITOR ON DRUG CHARGES; FAMILY CRIES FOUL
New York, June 25, 2012 - Authorities in Azerbaijan must drop the charges against journalist Hilal Mamedov and immediately release him, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Mamedov is the ...
CRISIS GROUP REPORT - ARMENIA: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR STATESMANSHIP
Yerevan/Tbilisi/Istanbul/Brussels - June 25, 2012 Unless Armenia's next presidential election is fair and gives its winner a strong political mandate, the government will lack the legitimacy needed to ...
74 YEAR-OLD STABS DAUGHTER-IN-LAW TO DEATH; THEN HIMSELF
Police report that Masis town resident 74 year-old Volodya Sahakyan attacked his daughter-in-law Kristineh Zakaryan with a knife yesterday and then turned the knife on himself, in an attempted suicide. The ...
ARMENIAN POLICE OFFICERS CAN SUE GLENDALE FOR DISCRIMINATION, JUDGE SAYS
1
By Veronica Rocha Four current and a former Glendale Armenian American police officers can move forward with their federal discrimination and harassment lawsuit against the city after a judge last week ...
RA DEFENSE MINISTER MEETS WITH CSTO SECRETARY GENERAL
Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan yesterday met with Nikolay Bordyuzha, Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The parties discussed issues related to the preparation ...
MOUTSK: ONLY THE ELDERLY REMAIN IN VILLAGE BORDERING NAKHICHEVAN (VIDEO)
By Armen Hovakimyan 59 year-old Razmik Simonyan, a resident of the village of Moutsk, hasn't put down his shepherd's crook foe 30 years. He spends most of his days in the hills, accompanied by his trusty ...
POLICE ARREST TWO TEENS IN ATTEMPTED YEREVAN STORE ROBBERY
Police arrested two Yerevan teenagers yesterday on suspicion of beating and robbing a Mashtots Avenue store clerk yesterday. The two confessed to police that they and a third accomplice entered the store ...
RA AMBASSADOR TO U.N. RAISES ISSUE OF AZERBAIJANI OCCUPATION OF ARTZVASHEN, NORTHER ARTSAKH
Armenia's Permanent Representative to the U.N., Karen Nazaryan, raised the issue of the Azerbaijani occupation of Artzvashen, Shahoumyan and Getashen during his speech yesterday at the Security Council. U.N. ...
PRESIDENT SARGSYAN: AZERBAIJAN MUST ACCEPT ALL THREE PRINCIPLES OF HELSINKI FINAL ACT FOR KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
Visiting Austrian President Heinz Fischer today declared in Yerevan that the Karabakh issue cannot be solved through force and violence. President Fischer made the statement at a joint press conference ...
PRESIDENT SARGSYAN BIDS FAREWELL TO GERMAN AMBASSADOR
RA President Serzh Sargsyan had a farewell meeting with German Ambassador to Armenia Hans Jochen Schmidt who is completing his diplomatic tour of duty in Armenia. President Sargsyan thanked the ambassador ...
VANADZOR HELSINKI CIVIL ASSEMBLY V POLICE CHIEF GASPARYAN CASE CONTINUES TOMORROW
The court case in which the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Civil Assembly is suing RA Police Chief Vladimir Gasparyan for slander is scheduled to continue tomorrow at the Kentron and Nork-Marash District ...