We start what promises to be a tough and challenging year (you ask – when have we had any other kind? I agree…) with an invitation to you to review not just our annual report – ARMENIA IN 2009 – PROMISE AND REALITY, but especially the budget graph that was the special annex to that report. How the government spends its funds is an important question for any country, especially one with limited resources. So, it was worth plowing through 1000 pages of Armenia’s national budget just so we could distill the picture, especially in the context of our continuing economic decline.
We continue to be seized by regional issues – especially those relating to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the Turkey-Armenia rapprochement process. Vartan Oskanian spoke about both of those recently in interviews to www.tert.am, 168 Zham newspaper, and A1+.
The activities above fall within the Civilitas Foundation’s Council on International Relations. As part of our Democracy and Development Initiative, we are working hard to develop a database of Armenia’s active non-governmental organizations in order to make it easier for donor and implementor to connect. People wanting to support good work should be able to easily identify those who do good work. In a few months, our directory should make that possible. (Even now, CIVILITAS CONNECTS begins to introduce who to some of the good people doing good work in Armenia.)
Finally, with support from the US Embassy in Armenia, we are helping nearly a dozen of Armenia’s regional libraries become centers of civil society, by improving their physical quarters and acquiring books.
And, for those of you in Armenia this week, join us either in Gyumri or Vanadzor as we hold public debates surrounding the themes analyzed in the annual report -- Gyumri on Thursday, February 11 at 2 pm at the Arevamanook Center, and Vanadzor on Friday, February 12 at 12 noon at the Green House Hotel. All are welcome. (Interpretation will not be available during these two events. Discussions will be conducted in Armenian only.)
Thank you to those who have supported our projects. We hope you’ll join them.
Has the prospect of Europe been sufficiently strong to affect the everyday life of ordinary Armenians and the strategic thinking and vision of their leaders? How does the prospect of Europe affect relations with neighbors and conflict resolution? How does the prospect of Europe influence Armenians’ approach to elections and all other basic civil rights? How far have basic European values of tolerance, freedoms, responsibilities and rights broken through the decades of contradictory principles and ideals? There are two kinds of responses to these questions among those who favor Europeanization. Many are convinced that this process of European engagement advances democratic values and a belief in the rule of law and is the only path to full European standards. There are others who believe that the endless hand-holding, monitoring and ‘understanding’ displayed by European institutions has served to tacitly bless the (at best) shortfalls or (at worst) disinclination or pretense of Europeanization and has allowed inconsistent, irresolute actions. On Wednesday, November 11, Civilitas will hold a public discussion on this issue. For those who can’t be present, the discussion will be available on the web and Civilitas will issue its first policy paper on the same topic the following week, with input from participants in this discussion and elsewhere. The discussion and the policy paper are part of the Civilitas Foundation Democracy and Development Initiative and receive support from the Government of Norway. Also for those who aren’t in Armenia, the first-hand reports of Civilitas Programs Coordinator on his visits to Armenia’s rural communities are rare (and frank) assessments of all that is difficult and inspiring in our villages and borderlands. You will enjoy reading them – and I say ‘enjoy’, fully aware that this is not a typical read. But, really, enjoy.
Here is Vartan Oskanian's interview published in the online newspaper Lragir.am in Armenian on Oct. 28, 2009 where he speaks about restoring citizens' right to participate, in the context of the declining economy and the continued focus on Armenia-Turkey border opening.
Click here to watch the video.
"Our task today is to work for each of those channels which allow people to participate in processes which affect their lives."
QUESTION: Mr. Oskanian, the attention of Armenia’s political circles seems to be focused on the protocols’ ratification process. Yet, isn’t that interest already unnecessary and aren’t some things already pre-determined, so that focusing on them simply means not focusing on other more important matters?
OSKANIAN: Once these protocols were signed, the rest for me is already just a technical matter whose discussion is nearly pointless. For me, it's still incomprehensible, unacceptable and unexplainable that the independent Republic of Armenia, which as a full subject of international law, is obliged to defend our own interests, signed, without thinking long, a document which unambiguously contradicts our national interests. As you say, this situation that's been created is absurd: after this obvious capitulation, we are all, to a man, waiting and disussing what Turkey will do, whether they will open the border or not. The ball really is in Turkey's court, but i don't see that that's anything to boast about. After all these Armenian concessions, the ball should have at least been in our court. We are wasting our resources and energy on a process that is no longer under our control and which will require untold amounts of time and energy to neu tralize its consequences.
Mr. Oskanian, what is at the basis of a country’s foreign policy? Can it be cut off from a country’s many unresolved internal, economic, political, legal, cultural problems and under those circumstances qualitatively differ from the tense domestic situation those unresolved problems have created?
You know, I'm confident that if the authorities invested a fraction of the huge time and energy they put into Armenia-Turkey process into resolving domestic problems, even they would have been surprised by the results. Armenia is a small country and our people are a grateful people. Even a small effort directed at solving our internal problems would bring huge results and our people would be very appreciative.
Read more...
This month we’ve added two new and exciting programs to our already varied plate of activities.
Our work in the villages, about which Programs Coordinator Hayk Petrosyan has begun to write in detail, brings a surprise with it each day. This work, which is basic for Armenia’s development, is supported by Armen and Nadya Ekserciyan of Argentina, as well as the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the government of Poland. You can participate, too. One of the great aspects of this program is that $100 is as useful as $75,000.
With support from the US Embassy in Armenia, we’ve just launched a program (application deadline is October 31) to support Armenia’s public libraries to become true centers of civil society. Libraries can themselves decide what it is they need to offer a warm, free, receptive environment and relevant programming to nurture healthy and responsible citizenship. You can support this effort as well.
The government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is making it possible for Civilitas, in cooperation with Counterpart International, to develop a guide to the activity of non-governmental organizations in Armenia. This project has just begun. When completed, potential donors can identify the organization with which they wish to work based on their past track record and activity.
All these come to complement the work of the Council on International Relations. Our program, Neighbors About Each Other, offers translations of articles in the press of Armenia and Turkey, in order for us to understand better the fears, concerns, prejudices and approaches of the neighbors.
And, always, there are our monthly public debates, facilitated by the government of the Kingdom of Norway. These debates intend to broaden the discourse and encourage debate about the national and international issues facing us.
There’s a lot to do. Join us!
When we say ‘good idea gone bad,’ we mean it. The Armenia-Turkey protocols are unacceptable because they have begun our bilateral relations from an unequal footing. “First Step – Capitulation”, Mr. Oskanian has called it.
But, we’ve also said, that healthy, normal Armenia-Turkey relations are not only acceptable but desirable and necessary. Towards that end, Civilitas will continue to analyze, study, assess and comment on ongoing Armenian-Turkish relations – both at the governmental level, and between representatives of civil society.
Last month, we proudly invited and hosted Turkish journalist and historian Osman Koker who presented his enormous, moving, unique collection of Armenian postcards representing the life of Armenians in Turkey 100 years ago. Osman stayed for several weeks, worked in our office, met with scholars of Turkey and gave tours of his exhibit to students and teachers. For him, this collection, this exhibition and the accompanying tome are important because they present inarguable documentation of an aspect of Turkish history that is intentionally ignored. In turn, his efforts brought about an increase in our own knowledge and awareness about our own history.
At the conclusion of the exhibition, our monthly Civilitas Public Debate featured Armenian journalist Boris Navasartian and Turkish journalist Yavuz Baydar (Zaman) in a dialogue about the image of each society about the other, and the expectations of each. Moderated by Alex Sardar, the forum reflected the personal journeys of all three participants in coming to an examination of the difficult political issues that come to the surface in a study of the genocide and its consequences.
In other words, don’t expect simplistic black and white positions from us. Civilitas events, publications and statements reflect the complexities and nuances of this and every other domestic and regional issue facing us. Stay tuned!
The Armenia-Turkey protocols are quite understandably at the center of public discussion in Armenia. Not so surprisingly, they are also part of the international discourse, this week with both Turkish and Armenian leaders referring to them at the United Nations General Assembly Debate. Less natural is the fact that this international debate continues to link the Armenia-Turkey border issue to a resolution of the Karabakh conflict, which may, or more likely, may not augur well for the Armenian side, which is at the receiving end of the brunt of the pressure. It was with all this in mind that Civilitas hosted a forum earlier this week during which Mr. Vartan Oskanian, chairman of the board of the Civilitas Foundation, and former foreign minister, rejected the formulation of the protocols and the way in which the process is moving forward.
As you read his speech (in English) or watch the video (in Armenian), you will notice new additions to the Civilitas site. In our determination to broaden the scope of debate on our domestic and foreign, political and economic situation, we offer FACTS FOR THOUGHT -- statistics and numbers which say volumes about Armenia and the region -- and we invite your comments.
Finally, we invite you to participate, if you are in Yerevan, in the first Civilitas Armenia-Turkey Dialogue public forum, to take place on Wednesday, September 30. We believe this is an appropriate way to conclude the very interesting and successful exhibition of postcards documenting Armenian life in Turkey, 100 years ago. Turkish journalist, editor, publisher Osman Koker has been in Yerevan for two weeks, following the responses to the exhibition, offering tours to students and others wanting more detailed information about the life and traditions these postcards illustrate. A gallery of these postcards will be online soon.
We await your comments.
Civilitas approaches its one-year anniversary with a full agenda. We are grateful to our partners -- the Swiss, Norwegian, British, Polish, Dutch governments and their aid agencies, as well as the Eurasia Partnership Foundation and particularly to the Ekserciyan Family of Argentina. We are pleased to be working on a project that couldn’t be more timely – a project that makes it possible to translate articles from Armenia’s press into Turkish, and articles from Turkey’s press into Armenian. The Armenian translations, with occasional English translations, too, can be found on our site on a daily basis. Turkish translations can be found on the website of the Agos Newspaper of Istanbul. This program began September 1, just one day after the announcement by the Swiss, Turkish and Armenian foreign ministries that protocols are to be signed in six weeks, with provisions for the long-awaited normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey. Yet, the protocols are, at the very least, problematic. Vartan Oskanian, Chairman of the Board of the Civilitas Foundation, explains why. We ask you to weigh in on this topic by responding to our Question and Answer which can be found on our website.
The meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan scheduled for this week may or may not move the sides forward on the path to a lasting peace. That path has not become any smoother over these 15 years. Indeed, perhaps the contrary. Civilitas Board Chairman Vartan Oskanian details the potential pitfalls facing us at this important juncture.
Beyond the complex international situation, domestic economic concerns continue to grow. The Civilitas Rural Economic Development Program, in partnership with the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, is working with two villages at the Armenian-Iranian border to protect their sources of water, and in the process, organize the communities to make that process sustainable. That has meant more than a dozen trips to Meghri by Civilitas staff and board over six months. One day we’ll write about the endless meandering path over three mountain ranges. Until then, you will be interested to read about the expected and unexpected problems facing villagers at the very end of the Armenian world.
Our regular monthly public forums have covered both international and domestic issues. This month, we discussed about the vulgarity that sometimes replaces debate in our political discourse.
And finally, before summer shuts down the Armenian press, read Vartan Oskanian’s interview to Lragir, on both Armenian and regional issues. He talks about taking initiative in foreign policy, about Armenia’s continuing Council of Europe monitoring, and about the persistent consequences of last fall’s signing of the Moscow declaration by the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
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