IS RUSSIA SEEKING TO “NEUTRALIZE” ARMENIAN CIVIL SOCIETY?
EurasiaNet.org
May 9 2014
May 9, 2014 – 2:05pm, by Marianna Grigoryan
Russian Ambassador Ivan Volinkin’s recent call “to neutralize”
Western-funded non-governmental organizations in Armenia is stoking
fears among Armenian activists that the country’s pending membership
in the Moscow-led Customs Union will prompt a rollback of civil rights.
In an interview published in the May 1-15 edition of the Moscow-based,
Armenian newspaper Noyev Kovcheg, Volinkin called for an information
campaign “and other methods” to respond to alleged attempts by local
non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to “drive a wedge” between
Armenia and Russia. As an example of such “methods,” he cited Russia’s
own 2013 law, which requires NGOs that receive international financing
to register as “foreign agents.” He also proposed that Russia be more
active in asserting itself in Armenian media.
The comments sent waves of concern through Armenia’s relatively
active civil society sector, one of the few consistent advocates
for democratic reforms. Concerns long have existed in Armenia that
Yerevan’s planned June accession to a customs union led by Russia
will mean kowtowing to Moscow’s political desires.
The fact that officials in Yerevan have not yet responded publicly to
Amabassador Volinkin’s comments has fed those fears. Rights activist
Artur Sakunts, head of the Helsinki Civil Assembly’s Vanadzor office,
asserted that Volkinin’s comments — as well as similar, previous
utterances – reflected a KGB mindset and illustrated Moscow’s distrust
of Yerevan.
At the April 12 Annual Conference of Russian Compatriots in Yerevan,
Volinkin announced that Moscow would prevent “any aggressive [outside,
non-Russian] intervention in the internal affairs of its neighboring
counties” that it deemed was meant to promote “ideas that are alien
to our minds and hearts.”
Armenian rights activists bristle at the Soviet-era notion of a union
of minds and hearts among Armenians and Russians. “Russia is trying
to silence independent voices in Armenia — the moderate, but strong
civil society, which they have failed to conquer,” said Sakunts. “This
is a problem which has ceased to exist in Belarus and Kazakhstan,
but it does exist in Armenia.”
In contrast to the three current members of the Customs Union, Armenia
is deemed “partly free” by the Washington,DC-based civil-rights
watchdog Freedom House.
The call for a crackdown on international NGOs in Armenia from
a foreign ambassador must be addressed, Armenian civil-society
organizations and opposition members believe. “If Armenian authorities
agree to these instructions, then they will destroy our country’s
future with their own hands,” warned Styopa Safarian, secretary of
the Heritage Party’s parliamentary faction.
On May 7, more than two dozen Armenian NGOs demanded Ambassador
Volkinin’s recall to Moscow, or an official apology from Moscow’s
envoy, as well as an “adequate” response from Armenian President
Serzh Sargsyan’s administration.
“We declare that there aren’t any nongovernmental organizations
working against Armenian-Russian friendship and we advise Ambassador
Volinkin to organize such witch hunts outside Armenia’s borders,”
reads the joint statement. [Editor’s Note: The Open Society
Foundation-Armenia, an entity in the Soros foundations network, is
among the signatories. EurasiaNet.org operates under the auspices
of the Open Society Foundation-New York City, a separate part of
the network].
Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tigran Balaian told journalists
that the government has responded to Ambassador Volinkin, but did not
elaborate. “I don’t think any nongovernmental group is able to drive
a wedge between Armenia and Russia, the centuries-long friendship of
the two peoples and the time-tested partner relations,” Balaian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
For opposition parliamentarian Safarian, however, the ambassador’s
comment has less to do with “friendly relations” with Yerevan than
“about democracy in Armenia.”
The governing Republican Party of Armenia does not seem particularly
concerned right now. Members could not be reached for comment.
There’s little doubt that Sargsyan administration’s ties to Russia
are solid. For the first time since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
Union, a joint military parade with Russian troops took place on May 9,
Victory Day, in the northern city of Gyumri. The city hosts a Russian
military base.
Political scientist Ruben Mehrabian from Yerevan’s non-profit Center
for Political and International Studies sees nothing surprising
about the government’s efforts to please Moscow while trying to
uphold Armenian sovereignty at the same time. “What is happening
right now fits the existing format of Russian-Armenian relations,”
said Mehrabian. “This is the miserable state we are in.”
Editor’s note: Marianna Grigoryan is a freelance reporter based in
Yerevan and editor of MediaLab.am.
http://www.eurasianet.org/node/68361