Metal Hammer, UK
Sept 30 2005
System Of A Down get policital

30 Sep 2005 System Of A Down go to senate on Armenian genocide
legislation
System Of A Down are to visit the office of Dennis Hastert, speaker
of the American House of Representatives, in an attempt to sway
pending Armenian Genocide legislation. The Armenian-American band,
who have always campaigned to raise awareness of the genocide of
1915-1923, in which 1.5m Armenians were killed by the Turkish
government, will join the Armenian National Committee of America,
Axis of Justice and the Armenian Youth Federation in a convoy
designed to put pressure on Hastert, who, as a member of the house’s
International Relations Committee, has twice prevented the
legislation from coming to a vote.
If Hastert says yes to the resolution it means that the 435 members
of the House will be able to cast their ballots on the issue, which
will lead to recognition of the genocide. However, Hastert, it is
alleged, consistently works against legislation that the Turkish
Government disapproves of; in this case, Turkey still maintains that
there was no genocide as such, the deaths being the result, they
posit, of the turmoil of the First World War.
The members of System Of A Down, who lost family members in the
genocide, patently don’t agree with that position. The band’s Serj
Tankian told
reporters: “Dennis, do the right thing…I just visited my 97-
year-old grandfather, my only link to the far past, and promised him
that I would go and try to talk to Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the
House, and make sure that he takes this opportunity to bring up the
Armenian Genocide Resolution to the floor of the House of
Representatives. This is a personal issue to me and System.”

;type=NWS

Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE)

Sept 30 2005

OSCE Office and Armenian Foreign Ministry promote culture of
tolerance in Armenia

/noticias.info/ The OSCE Office in Yerevan and the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia organized a thematic
concert in the Armenian National Opera House to promote tolerance in
society.
The event, entitled ‘Through culture to tolerance’, underlined the
importance of tolerance education and an open society, both are
cornerstones of democratic development.
Armenia, which is home to a small number of very old minority
communities, attaches great importance to the open character of its
society.
“Tolerance is harmony in diversity, the foundation of democratic
societies,” said Ambassador Vladimir Pryakhin, Head of the OSCE
Office in Yerevan, at the opening of the concert. “Tolerance is an
active attitude prompted by recognition of the universal human rights
and fundamental freedoms of others. It is not only a moral duty, but
also a political and legal requirement.”
Armenian Foreign Minister, Vartan Oskanian, stated, “In Armenia, none
of us – Armenians, Russians, Yezidis, Greeks, Ukrainians, Jews,
Iranians, Arabs – are outsiders. We are all citizens of Armenia,
living together, working together, creating together.”
The music of the well-known Armenian composer, Willi Weiner, whose
works are based on the cultural traditions of several nations, was
performed by a number of leading Armenian soloists and the
Sympho-Jazz Orchestra of the Armenian Public TV and Radio.
A special brochure listing OSCE commitments on tolerance in a number
of documents, such as the Helsinki Final Act 1975, the Copenhagen
Document 1990, the Cordoba Declaration 2005, and the Paris Charter
for a New Europe 1990, was published and distributed to the guests at
the event.

Contacts Gohar Avagyan OSCE Office in Yerevan 89 Teryan St. 375009
Yerevan Armenia Tel: +374 10 54 10 62 +374 10 54 58 45 Fax: +374 10
54 10 61

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 30 2005

Baku, Yerevan should step up progress in conflict settlement –
Armenian FM

Armenian foreign minister has said that the parties to the Upper
Garabagh conflict – Azerbaijan and Armenia – should step up progress
achieved in the conflict settlement. `A very suitable moment has come
about from the standpoint of resolving the Garabagh conflict’, Vardan
Oskanian told a press conference on Thursday.
`There are positive processes and achievements and we should use them
in order to continue the negotiating process and deepen the
accomplishments after the parliament elections in Azerbaijan.’
Legislative poll is due in the country on November 6.
The European Union special envoy on South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie
said that `dynamics’ is indeed discerned in the conflict settlement
and the process depends on whether or not the conflicting sides will
seize the opportunity. The conflict resolution will also assist in
establishing regional cooperation, he added.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 30 2005

Talvitie blames Azerbaijan for delay in EU-Armenia talks

The European Union special envoy on South Caucasus said in Yerevan
that talks on Armenia’s Action Plan within the European Union New
Neighborhood Policy are being delayed `due to problems in
Azerbaijan’s relations with one of the EU member states’, Armenian
media reported.
Heikki Talvitie did not cite a specific country, but the ensuring
statements showed that he implied Cyprus.
`In making the decision to get the three South Caucasus countries
involved in the New Neighborhood Policy, EU was guided by the need
for observing a balanced policy toward all regional states.’
Talvitie expressed a hope that the tensions in the relations between
the `EU member state’ and Azerbaijan would be solved by mid-October.
Otherwise, the European Union will start pursuing a ‘more
differentiated policy’ with regard to South Caucasus, he said.
According to the Armenian foreign ministry, Azerbaijan’s recent
decision to open direct flights with the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus was the `real reason’ for the delay in EU-Armenia talks. In
response, the authorities of Greek Cyprus, which became a
full-fledged member of the European Union last year, vetoed the
discussions on the Action Plan with Azerbaijan, the same source
said.*

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
Sept 30 2005

Interior Ministry representatives visit Yerevan

A 4-member delegation of the Interior Ministry headed by deputy
minister Asgar Alakbarov left for Yerevan on Thursday to attend a
regular meeting of the CIS Council of Interior Ministers.
The Azerbaijani representatives are not expected to hold discussions
with their Armenian counterparts during the visit, the Ministry said.
Delegations from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have also arrived in Yerevan, according to
Armenian press reports. Ways of fighting organized crime will be
discussed at the two-day meeting attended by CIS executive director
Vladimir Rushaylo and Secretary General of Interpol Ronald Noble.*

Jakarta Post, Indonesia
Sept 30 2005
The 9/30 tragedy
Something horrible happened 40 years ago that changed the course of
Indonesia’s history, unfortunately for the worse. But while the
circumstances surrounding the kidnapping and murder of six Army
generals on the night of Sept. 30, 1965, remain shrouded in mystery,
the effects of this tragic event are unequivocal: it was a case of
one tragedy leading to another, and another, and another.
Whoever was responsible for the kidnappings and killings, and
whatever their motives — both questions remain contentious to this
day among historians — the events of that night, which lasted until
the early hours of Oct. 1, unleashed a killing spree that went on for
months, with the main targets, though by far not the only targets,
being suspected members and supporters of the Indonesian Communist
Party (PKI), which was blamed for the murder of the generals.
If that was not enough of a tragedy, the nation saw the young Army
general Soeharto seize the presidency the following year, ushering in
an era of repression, brutality and corruption that would last for
the next three decades.
Soeharto was easily one of the most ruthless rulers of the 20th
century, and his human rights record matches those of other dictators
of his era: the jailing of tens of thousands of people without trial,
the invasion of East Timor and the ensuing brutal rule of the
territory, the silencing of politicians, clerics and students who
disagreed with his policies, his brutal policies in Aceh and Papua,
to name but a few. Last week, more than seven years after his removal
from office, the National Commission on Human Rights announced that
14 government critics who went missing during Soeharto’s rule had
been murdered.
Soeharto’s legacy goes beyond the atrocities he and his regime
committed. The militaristic and often brutal nature of our political
culture today, from the intolerance to the use of violence to settle
differences, is deeply rooted in Soeharto’s New Order, and it will
likely require one or two generations to undo this unfortunate legacy
as the nation struggles to transform itself into a democracy.
But the biggest tragedy for the nation is our own denial that 9/30
was a tragedy of horrific proportions. Soeharto used the event to
sanctify Pancasila, effectively turning the state ideology into an
instrument he could wield to justify his brutal policies.
Officially, at least during the Soeharto years, the event was marked
on Oct. 1, thus confining the tragedy solely to the killing of the
six generals and, at least according to military historians, to the
abortive coup by the PKI. What happened afterward was justified as a
necessary evil, even a historical necessity, although the killing
spree was not openly recognized.
There was no mention in the military-dictated official history books
of the ensuing bloodshed, which according to international human
rights organizations left at least half a million people dead. The
precise figure will never be known precisely because we as a nation
pretend it never happened.
C. L. Sulzberger, writing in The New York Times from Jakarta on April
13, 1966, compared the Indonesian killings with other slaughters of
the 20th century, including the Armenian massacres, Stalin’s
starvation of the Kulaks, Hitler’s Jewish genocide, the Muslim-Hindu
killings following India’s partition and the purges following China’s
turn to communism.
“Indonesia’s bloody persecution of its communist rivals these
terrible events in both scale and savagery,” Sulzberger wrote.
Four decades later the nation has not fully come to terms with the
reality of these events. We barely know the truth. We only have the
truth Soeharto’s military wanted us to have. The worst part is that
most of us do not seem to want to know what happened. We would rather
bury this ugly past and forget it entirely.
But here is the bad news: We can never bury the past. This dark page
in our history will continue to haunt us for as long as we fail to
get to the truth. As they say, only the truth shall set us free.
More than seven years since Soeharto left the political stage, surely
the time has come for the nation to rewrite the history of what
happened on the night of Sept. 30, 1965. History is always written
from the perspective of the victors. Soeharto was the winner of the
power struggle in the mid-1960s, thus he had his day.
But as his legacy shows, there are no real winners here. The entire
nation suffered, and continues to suffer to this day. There are only
losers.

Jerusalem Post
Sept 30 2005
Turkey’s chief rabbi attends ‘Meeting of Civilizations’
By SAM SER

Turkey’s Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva was one of several religious leaders
to participate in the First Hatay Meeting of Civilizations, held this
week in the religiously and ethnically diverse southern city of
Hatay. During the week-long symposium, which ends on Friday, Haleva
joined a call to banish violence from all religions and to work
toward peace in society.
The Anatolian Times quoted Haleva as commenting despairingly that
civilizations were “spending $100 million every hour for tanks,
rifles and bullets… If this is civilization, then I am not a part
of it. Is this what our creator expects of us?” Haleva said.
The chief rabbi, who was lightly wounded in a deadly bombing that
severely damaged the Neveh Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul two years
ago, added: “If religions cannot protect civilizations from
committing suicide, all steps taken until today would be of no use.”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the gathering,
which included religious leaders from Turkey’s Muslim, Greek Orthodox
and Armenian communities, with a speech that stressed religious
tolerance and respect for diversity.
Zaman, a Turkish on-line newspaper, quoted Erdogan as saying, “The
[Koran] says that we were created as diverse peoples so that we could
get acquainted with each other. According to this, our separation
into different nations should not cause conflicts. On the contrary,
it should enable acquaintance and dialogue among us.”
Erdogan also simultaneously criticized Islamic terrorism and the rush
to view Muslims as terrorists.
“I declare Islamic-phobia a crime against humanity in the same way we
accept anti-Semitism as a crime against humanity,” the prime minister
was quoted as saying.
On Wednesday afternoon, US public relations chief Karen Hughes, who
is traveling throughout the Middle East to try to improve the image
of the United States among Muslims, took time to meet with Haleva and
other religious leaders at Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
The Associated Press reported that Hughes would not reveal precisely
what she discussed with Haleva and the others, saying simply, “We
discussed the problems of the world.”

Washington Post
Sept 30 2005
A Maestro Awaits the Coda
After Eventful Journey, Conductor Hopes to Restart Music in Arlington
By Michael E. Ruane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 30, 2005; Page B01
The maestro’s baton remains unused in its wooden case on the
bookshelf by the front door. His musicians have scattered to other
jobs. His small but proud orchestra has vanished, its office in a
Virginia shopping mall dim, locked and vacant.
Decades after he studied in Moscow and Vienna and conducted the
Bolshoi Opera, and 17 years after he gave the KGB the slip in Bolivia
and defected to the United States, the aging maestro sits in his
small apartment in Ballston: infirm from heart and circulation
problems, hoping for another chance to raise his boyish hands and
conduct once again.
Photo: Ruban Vartanyan, former conductor of the defunct Arlington
Symphony, at his home in Arlington. He lives alone in a one bedroom
apartment in Arlington. Ruban talks to reporter. (James A. Parcell –
Twp)
This time of year, Ruben Vartanyan, 69, an “orchestra maker,” as he
calls himself, and former conductor of the Arlington Symphony, should
be at the start of a season. But on July 15, the 60-year-old symphony
— “the orch,” to its musicians — declared bankruptcy, and
Vartanyan, its eloquent and beloved conductor for 13 years, was out
of a job.
He spends much of the day in his apartment, alone but “absolutely
self-sufficient,” surrounded by literature, musical scores and record
albums. He is bald and diminutive with pale, youthful-looking hands.
He has much of the world’s great classical music committed to memory.
And he has a personal history as grand as an opera.
As a child, he fled with his mother in 1941 when the German army
began to encircle Leningrad. He was schooled by some of the 20th
century’s towering figures in classical music. As a conductor, he was
tossed on the currents of the Cold War, fell into the bad graces of
the Soviet Union’s intelligence service and slipped into the United
States.
Vartanyan surfaced after his defection at a news conference at the
National Press Club on Sept. 22, 1988, when he said he could no
longer live and work in the U.S.S.R.
His professional life had begun there with great promise. The son of
a brilliant Armenian clarinetist in a Soviet army band, Vartanyan
said he got a superb musical education in Russia.
He also studied for a year in Vienna under the late Austrian
conductor Herbert von Karajan and went on to conduct across Europe
and America.
In 1971 he went to La Paz, Bolivia, to conduct the national symphony
for a year. Three weeks later, Bolivia’s leftist regime was
overthrown in a rightist coup.
As a Soviet artist, Vartanyan thought he was in trouble. But Gen.
Hugo Banzer, who led the coup, liked music. He extended the
conductor’s stay and admitted him to the government’s inner circles,
Vartanyan said.
This, he said, soon became of interest to the KGB, which asked him to
inform on the Bolivians. He said he declined. When he returned to the
Soviet Union six years later, he found himself out of work and with a
menacing black sedan constantly parked outside his apartment
building.
He persevered and three years later landed a job conducting the famed
Bolshoi Opera. But he was still under a cloud, and when his wife died
in 1986, he vowed to defect. His chance came two years later, when he
was allowed to go back to Bolivia to conduct for a few weeks.
Vartanyan’s dark eyes grew serious as he told the story at his dining
room table one recent morning. He declined to provide “technical
details” of his escape, saying only that “it was very difficult and
very dangerous.”

Ruban Vartanyan, former conductor of the defunct Arlington Symphony,
at his home in Arlington. He lives alone in a one bedroom apartment
in Arlington. Ruban talks to reporter. (James A. Parcell – Twp)
Now a U.S. citizen, he said he has no regrets: “This is a country
that I love immensely. . . . This is my country forever. . . . We are
simply living in difficult times, and we need to learn how to survive
in these difficult times.”
Once a traveler among the great musical capitals of the world, he
settled in Virginia, conducted in school auditoriums and adopted
Arlington and its symphony as his own. “I am convinced Arlingtonian,”
he said. “I will die here.”
The Arlington Symphony, which traced its roots to the old War
Production Orchestra of 1945, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy after a
decline in fortunes over the past several years, according to former
board members and musicians.
It had accumulated $139,000 in debt, canceled its final concert May
14 and owed money to, among others, scores of ticket holders and
musicians. Vartanyan is owed almost $3,000, according to court
filings. The orchestra had $94,000 in assets.
The symphony employed 60 to 90 part-time professional musicians, many
of whom remain devoted to Vartanyan. “We loved him,” said Wes
Nichols, the principal oboist. “He is a terrific, world-class
musician who just fell from the sky to those of us who play around
here.”
Vartanyan was hired in 1992. Mary Hewitt, the only symphony board
member to vote against filing for bankruptcy, was on the search
committee that found him. “There was something about this man that I
felt was very special,” she said.
His last concert was an April 8 performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s
“Requiem.” “Very symbolic,” Vartanyan said.
Now there is a move afoot to resurrect the symphony in a more modest
form. Exploratory meetings have been held, and there is interest
among former musicians and supporters.
“Myself and musicians, we have expectations . . . that the board of
Arlington County, business community of Arlington County and our
audience in general will help us to continue our educational and
artistic work,” Vartanyan said.
But the odds are long. Funding is scarce. And the work to rebuild
could be enormous.
The old conductor, though, is available. His wooden baton — “my
Stradivari,” he joked — is ready. “I’m a strong man,” he said. “I’ve
seen in my life so many things. . . . I don’t give up.”
From: Baghdasarian

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER, WA
Sept 30 2005
Serious, silly, spellbinding: Band knows how to ‘Mezmerize’ its fans
By GENE STOUT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER POP MUSIC CRITIC
System of a Down — a high-decibel foursome with a devilish sense of
humor and an unlikely blend of musical styles — may be one of
today’s most successful arena-rock bands. But the Armenian American
group hasn’t forgotten its roots.
COMING UP
SYSTEM OF A DOWN, THE MARS VOLTA AND HELLA
WHAT: Rock concert
WHEN: Wednesday night at 7
WHERE: KeyArena
TICKETS: $31.50-$44 at Ticketmaster

“There’s a commonality there, a common denominator culturally,”
singer Serj Tankian said by phone en route to a show in Minneapolis.
“That’s been a strength in some ways, but it’s also an understanding
of the dynamics of music and the different beats and melodies that
wouldn’t be common to a non-Armenian.”
Tankian never planned to be in an Armenian American rock band, it
just turned out that way. He started playing with singer and
guitarist Daron Malakian in high school, and they later hooked up
with drummer John Dolmayan and bassist Shavo Odadjian. The group
signed a recording contract with Rick Rubin’s American Recordings
label in the late ’90s, and Rubin has produced their records every
since.
The group’s 2001 album, “Toxicity,” arrived just before the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks and served as a kind of soundtrack for the national
trauma.
“It was kind of luck or destiny that it ended up this way,” Tankian
said.
Currently on its first major North American tour in three years, the
band Newsweek magazine dubbed “L.A.’s Armenian Idols” performs
Wednesday night at KeyArena with The Mars Volta and Hella.
Tankian and his bandmates took time out from the tour on Tuesday to
lead a rally for the Armenian National Committee of America at the
Batavia, Ill., office of House Speaker Dennis Hastert to urge his
support of Armenian genocide legislation.
If passed, the legislation will officially recognize the genocide of
1.5 million Armenians in Turkey from 1915 to 1923.
“We want to encourage him to do the right thing and bring it to the
floor for a vote,” Tankian said. “(Hastert) has had the opportunity
to do it twice before and has not for different reasons. It’s been
five years and everyone is tired of waiting.”
The tour supports the release of the platinum-selling album,
“Mezmerize,” the first CD in a two-part set that includes a companion
album, “Hypnotize,” due in stores Nov. 17.
“Mezmerize” is a schizophrenic album that blends howling vocals and
blistering guitars with traditional Middle Eastern instrumentation
(as well as violins, cellos and violas) and barbed social commentary.
The album explores politics, Hollywood phoniness, and life and death.
It may sound like an impossible mix, but it’s provocative and
entertaining — serious and silly at the same time.
“Why don’t presidents fight the war?/ Why do they always send the
poor?” Tankian screams on the anti-war song “B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own
Bombs).”
For Tankian, who grew up in Lebanon, strong anti-war feelings come
naturally.
“I always say that if you come from a place where you hear bombs
dropped on a city, you’d be reluctant to drop bombs on any city,” he
said.
Pornography comes under fire in “Violent Pornography”: “It’s a
violent pornography/ Choking chicks and sodomy.” “Cigaro” is an
X-rated song that has Tankian and Malakian in a hilariously operatic
vocal duel that recalls Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“It’s probably a combination of personal and non-personal matters
that have led us to where we are musically,” Tankian said.
“I’m not comfortable with just entertaining. Although I like
entertaining, I also like bringing forward the truth of our times as
minstrels used to in the old days.”
“Mezmerize” and “Hypnotize” were recorded and mixed at the same time,
but scheduled for release six months apart.
“The packaging is designed so that when people buy the second record,
they can attach it to the first, making it a double record,” Tankian
said.
The band decided to release two discs instead of one because they had
so much good material from recording sessions.
“That doesn’t sound very modest, but that’s what it is. As we were
writing and recording, we realized that there was no way we could
decide what songs were going to be on the record,” he said.
“And we’re not fans of long, long records.”
Tankian described Rubin, a superproducer who has worked with everyone
from the Beastie Boys to Johnny Cash, as a nurturing presence in the
studio.
“He brings a lot out of you, but he doesn’t try to completely change
things. He tries to let the beast be the beast.”

Eurasia Daily Monitor, DC
The Jamestown Foundation
Sept 30 2005
LOCAL ELECTIONS EXPOSE WEAKNESS OF ARMENIAN CIVIL SOCIETY
By Emil Danielyan
Friday, September 30, 2005
Armenia’s ongoing local election season is exposing the degradation
of its democratic institutions as well as the weakness of its civil
society. The polls, effectively boycotted by the Armenian opposition,
are essentially an intra-government affair, with rival wealthy
individuals seeking to further their business interests through
control of local government bodies. Their handling by the authorities
bodes ill for the freedom and fairness of the crucial constitutional
referendum due in November.
The electoral process affecting the vast majority of the country’s
930 rural and urban communities began this spring and will peak in
October. The most important of those communities are the ten
administrative districts in the capital, Yerevan. Most of them have
already elected their chief executives and city councilmen.
As was the case in the past, Armenia’s leading opposition parties
have shown little interest in the local races. Opposition leaders
claim that they cannot be democratic as long as President Robert
Kocharian and his allies remain in power. They also say that local
communities do not have any significant powers in Armenia’s highly
centralized system of governance.
The only place where Armenia’s largest opposition group, the Justice
bloc, has fielded a candidate so far was Yerevan’s central Kentron
district, whose incumbent alderman, Gagik Beglarian, is a staunch
Kocharian loyalist. Yet even there opposition leaders effectively
avoided campaigning for their female candidate, Ruzan Khachatrian.
She therefore had no chance to defeat her rival, who had the backing
of the entire state apparatus and controlled the local election
commissions. Official results of the September 25 ballot showed
Beglarian winning 86% of the vote. Although the opposition candidate
claimed that the race was decided by multiple voting and vote buying
in some Kentron neighborhoods, election observers from the Council of
Europe said they did not witness serious irregularities.
Commentators widely criticized the opposition’s indifference to the
most important local poll. Even a leader of the governing Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK) chided the opposition leaders for “throwing a
teammate into the lion’s mouth.” Iravunk, a newspaper critical of the
authorities, warned on September 27 that the opposition tactic had
made it easier for the ruling regime to push through its
controversial package of constitutional amendments at the November
referendum. But another paper, Azg, pointed out that the newly
elected or reelected local government chiefs will lack the motivation
to strive for a “yes” vote at the referendum with the same zeal.
What ordinary Armenians think of the constitutional amendments is
seen as secondary. The key factor is the authorities’ so-called
“administrative resources” that have been heavily used in all
Armenian elections over the past decade. Tactics include direct
involvement of government and law-enforcement bodies in campaigning,
aggressive televised propaganda, crude electoral fraud, and vote
buying. The last technique is becoming the defining feature of
Armenian local elections. The fact that their voter turnout is
usually well below 50% makes the practice particularly effective.
Vote bribes are what apparently enabled a 26-year-old man, Mher
Hovannisian, to get “elected” as alderman of Yerevan’s poorest
district, Nubarashen, on September 18. The youngster’s main merit was
the fact that his businessman father is a friend of one of Armenia’s
most powerful “oligarchs,” Gagik Tsarukian. Local, mostly elderly
voters admitted to journalists that they were paid 5,000 drams ($11)
to vote for him.
The Nubarashen election followed a pattern that has taken root in
most urban communities. They are typically run by wealthy
government-connected individuals who hold sway in a particular area
and are undeterred by their lack of constitutional powers (an elected
prefect can be sacked by a government-appointed regional governor
practically at will). Their affiliation with governing political
parties (usually the HHK) is largely nominal and their bonds with
senior government officials or millionaire “oligarchs” are much
stronger. The key preoccupation of most community chiefs is to create
favorable conditions for their and their cronies’ businesses. The
government office also gives them additional protection against
corrupt tax and law-enforcement bodies.
The local bosses primarily rely on their government connections and
financial resources to win elections. Quasi-criminal elements often
act as their foot soldiers, mobilizing, bribing, and bullying voters.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation, another pro-presidential
party, has repeatedly expressed concern about the growing influence
of what it calls “apolitical elements” in the country. One of its
leaders warned in February of the possibility of armed clashes
between rival clans during the local elections. As if to prove him
right, on September 24 the mayor of a small town near Yerevan shot
and killed a local businessman who had campaigned for his main
election rival. The shooting took place on a street in broad
daylight.
It is highly doubtful that Kocharian or his most powerful associate,
Defense Minister Serge Sarkisian, will take any action against the
corrupt local clans. They are one of the pillars of Armenia’s deeply
flawed political system. The ruling regime needs them more than any
of the three parties represented in Kocharian’s government to rig
presidential and parliamentary elections.
The fact that the increasingly entrenched clans are tightening their
grip on local governments with little resistance from political
parties, non-governmental organizations, and media speaks volumes
about the state of civil society in Armenia. It also dims prospects
for the country’s democratization. That most people do not care who
runs their district or town and that some of them are ready to sell
their votes should also be a cause for serious concern among those
who promote political reform in Armenia.
(Iravunk, Azg, Haykakan Zhamanak, September 27; RFE/RL Armenia
Report, February 21, September 19 and 26)
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress