Politics
Fat and rich parliamentarians: is this the shortcoming of the electoral law?
Lilit AVAGYAN | January 26, 2012
The opposition political powers of Armenia believe that if the electoral system is transformed to fully proportional system of elections, there will be less electoral violation and falsification. Or, these 41 MPs that are the loyalists of the authorities and business representatives will not be in the parliament anymore. This means that the mechanism of elections does not work in a duly manner because of the law. There must be a small change. The assertion of the opposition is not justified well, meanwhile the reaction of the government is not understandable either. In fact, it is an attempt to create an imitation of a conflict concerning an issue that in fact does not have any influence on elections in Armenia. Such discussions might be useful maybe before the elections in 1995-96. In fact it doesn’t make much difference if the authorities violate with 100% proportional system of elections or majoritarian. The ARF, Heritage, ANC and PA parties have the same opinion concerning this issue and they say that...
Politics
Diplomatic privileges of small states
Arman NAVASARDYAN | January 24, 2012
The New York Academy of experts headed by a woman professor Fox, small state definition Fox group, believes that small countries are those that do not possess the military means more power for a long time to resist the military offensive. It turns out that the fate of small countries in the XXI century light depending on the caprices of the mighty, who can delete them if they wanted the world face, deprived of their right to live. Not at all. If the state does not have sufficient arms and armed forces, it finds other ways, the most important means of diplomacy in the early times of humanity in the face-saving way to survive and international conflicts. In the Middle Ages Nicollo Machiavelli based on his dwarf state interests, advised avoiding compromise just like a fox, and in order to get rid of wolves, he advised to turn into a lion, which, however, is not enough to defeat the enemy. For the great thinker the metaphoric idea that diplomacy is a priority for the state's interests (fox), rather than strength (lion),...
Politics
Elder brother’s success
Lilit AVAGYAN | December 8, 2011
The polling was well-organized in general, however the electoral process evidently deteriorated during the ballot counting procedure, which was followed by violations and fraud, including serious cases of ballot stuffing. What a familiar story. We know those things almost literally. We hear such things after all elections, such as parliamentary, presidential, local-self government. OSCE monitors are only the authors of such stories. I am sure before attending to every former USSR country election monitoring they take out this ready text from their drawers, carefully fold it and put in their pockets. Europeans who left to monitor Russian State Duma elections needed this paper again. But we know the value of such monitoring very well. It does not worth a rusty peanut, as cannot ever influence on elections. Generally, in order to keep opposition sector alert (especially in the ANC demonstrations) Egypt, Libya and Tunisia events are often recalled. As if they want to say the sparkle was enough for the fire. How the...
Politics
All we are equal against the law
Lilit AVAGYAN | December 6, 2011
Women that want to make business in Armenia they do it. The reality in Armenia is like the women that do not want to do business they have to do it. Both the Constitution and electoral code write that the men and women have equal rights. Accordingly, it is planned to increase the presence of women in the legislative body and starting from the second number in the proportional lists every 20% in the lists should be women (at least one woman). It is not the day of March 8, and it is not the time to discuss the issue of women. However, it turns out that there are reasons for that as the international organizations from time to time organize different events dedicated to women. People from other countries think that they should remind the Armenian women that they are not only for having children and washing dishes but also they can be involved in politics. By the way, in Armenia there are discussions concerning the OSCE/Yerevan office, OSCE democratic institutions and human rights office. The goal of such events...
Society
Send money
Lilit AVAGYAN | November 29, 2011
It has been several months that Armenia pan-Armenian fund is asking all Armenians around the world to donate money under the slogan “Give water – give life”. I tried to a give a google search to understand how serious the water problem is. I searched “there is no water in the village” and displayed dozens of pages. Those who have ever asked themselves why women and men in remote regions look older and more tired, will find the answers to their questions here because the life is twice more difficult in those areas. For example, in Lori’s Mghart village people are using the water of the gold mines (belonging to the Multi Group company). There are water problems in villages such as Lanjazat, Vosekavn of Tavush region, Norabak village of Gegharkunik region. It is more than 20 years that there is water problem in Yeghvard village. Vanadzor’s Saramej village does not have water for many years. Fantan village does not have water since 1991. The number of villages that don’t...
Politics
Vladimir Ivanov, “There is a little chance of serious counteraction in the NKR”
Yuri SIMONYAN | November 26, 2011
In the world the political situation continues to be complicated. The military actions are not over yet in Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not yet clear in what direction the states of Northern Africa will develop, even the ones, which are coordinated by the west. The circle around Syria is stretched and the rumors in relation to Iran are becoming more radical as well as the latter’s response to the west. The Serbians of Kosovo are asking Russia to give them Russian citizenship with all the logical consequences originating from that possibility. Both North and South Caucasus are far from being peaceful. What can be expected from this? We have discussed this and many other matters with the Strategic Research Institute expert, academician of the Academy of Public and Military Protection Vladimir Ivanov. - After the collapse of the USSR the Caucasus turned into a hot spot and continues this status till now. There is silence in Abkhazia and South Ossetia and perhaps this is temporary. There is tension around the...
Society
Come home or, to be honest, go away
Lilit AVAGYAN | November 17, 2011
In March of this year demonstrations started against the government in Syria. Experts are drawing some parallels and Lybia as in both cases the rebels were armed. Armenians are interested in the developments in Syria and neighboring countries not only from the prospective of receiving information and news. According to different sources, in Syria there is an Armenian community with 60-80,000 people. The policy of Armenians in Syria, according to member of the community of writers of Syria, doctor of history sciences Nora Arisyan, is pro-governmental. However, in consideration of the external pressure on Syria (even the Arabian league has suspended its membership), the domestic political tension, the future of the Armenian community in Syria is still unknown. Candidate of history sciences and freelance journalist Gevorg Yazyrchyan says that he thinks the development of the political situation in Syria is against the Armenian factor too. - Gevorg, the number of the victims resulted from the clashes between the...
Politics
Is it better to be the first one among slaves or the second one in Rome?
Lilit AVAGYAN | November 8, 2011
The national elections such as the parliamentary, presidential and local government elections are regulated by the law. There is also a central electoral commission, which is to regulate the processes of elections and take care of the technical issues, control the financial flows of political parties and individuals involved in elections, etc. Political parties and politicians have to do their best to gain the trust and respect of people, which can be done only with good work. The easiest mechanism of being re-elected is very simple as the parties that are elected have tools and power in the government in order to work and make the lives of their voters easier to have their trust for the future too. The replacements in the government that happened the recent times are a very interesting message. These are very strange as they have paralyzed the political sector. Specifically, it is very strange to see that the speaker of the parliament is resigning with the explanation that he prefers being the coordinator of...
