Predictably,
Western
news media has been dramatizing and sensationalizing the recent mass demonstrations in Armenia. They are also making it seem as if police violence is taking place against peaceful demonstrators. They are also doing their best to portray
the situation in Armenia as one being against Russia. None of it is true, at least thus far.
Although the protest movement is attracting all kinds of unsavory
characters, professional revolutionaries from around the world and Western-Armenian activists, the organizers of the protests themselves have thus far been successful in keeping their
movement apolitical and strictly confined to their stated grievance. Let's therefore please stop taking Western news reports about the recent events in Armenia too seriously. Let's also stop panicking and overreacting.
Although Russians as well as many Armenians like myself are understandably concerned about the prevailing situation, there is NO color revolution taking place in Armenia. There is NO "Maidan"
in Yerevan! While I agree that we cannot underestimate the inherent dangers of having Western operatives present among thousands demonstrators on a daily basis, I also think we don't need to be creating self-fulfilling prophesies by overreacting and blowing things out of proportions. While I
understand that the danger is clearly there for
this protest movement to get hijacked at some point by Western interests, we are not there yet.
Most probably, we will not get there at all.
For now, however, we don't need to make things worst by overreacting. This especially applies to Armenian law enforcement bodies. Their actions will therefore be pivotal. With that said, from what I have seen thus far, security officials in Yerevan have been exercising great restraint. If things do get out of control, however, I am confident they are well prepared to deal with it.
What is now known about the current, widely publicized demonstrations in Armenia is that their organizers are the same group of young activists that organized two prior «ԴԵՄ ԵՄ» movements against unpopular government initiatives. From what is known about them, they don't have direct funding from abroad or even leadership, at least in the traditional sense. They are a group of loosely interconnected young activists who use social media to coordinate their actions. They had made a good name for themselves previously because they were seen by the public and authorities alike as a homegrown, grassroots movement that did its best not to align themselves with any political party. More importantly in my opinion, they were seen as doing their best to stay clear of Western/American meddling. I am therefore willing to give them the benifit of the doubt. The same group of seemingly apolitical activists have again taken to the streets to protest against another unpopular government initiative.
What is now known about the current, widely publicized demonstrations in Armenia is that their organizers are the same group of young activists that organized two prior «ԴԵՄ ԵՄ» movements against unpopular government initiatives. From what is known about them, they don't have direct funding from abroad or even leadership, at least in the traditional sense. They are a group of loosely interconnected young activists who use social media to coordinate their actions. They had made a good name for themselves previously because they were seen by the public and authorities alike as a homegrown, grassroots movement that did its best not to align themselves with any political party. More importantly in my opinion, they were seen as doing their best to stay clear of Western/American meddling. I am therefore willing to give them the benifit of the doubt. The same group of seemingly apolitical activists have again taken to the streets to protest against another unpopular government initiative.
Revolutions
are dreamed of by romantics, carried-out by adventurists and exploited
by scoundrels
Thus far, protest organizers seem to be successfully maintaining their politically non-aligned position. But with thousands of excited protesters in the streets, there is opportunity for exploitation. It goes without saying that Armenia's Western-led political opposition representatives and Western-funded activists have been trying to steal the show. It is no secret that Armenia's Western agitators want to hijack the current momentum. And therein lies the real danger Armenia faces today.
If as a result of our young romantics and adventurists Armenia descends into sociopolitical unrest, those well positioned to take advantage of the situation are Western interests.
Since political opposition groups in Armenia have been discredited in recent years, they are incapable of drawing large numbers of people into the streets. They have therefore been trying to take advantage of the current situation by trying to make it seem as if they are part of the demonstrations. For example, members from Jirayr Sefilian's Founding Parliament and Raffi Hovanissian's Heritage Party have been participating in all the demonstrations but the young protest organizers don't seem to be giving them much attention. I admit that Nikol Pashinyan's presence among demonstrators is not heartwarming in the least bit. But as much as I dislike the character, I can't in all honesty say he is directly working for Western interests. Protest organizers also seem to be doing their best not to publicly express any anti-Russian rhetoric or call into question Armenia's strategic alliance with Russia. The few EU flags seen on one particular day were not sanctioned by protest organizers. The flags in question may have been photo-shopped into pictures to either discredit the demonstrations or make them seem as if they are politically motivated. There is also the possibility that the EU flags were displayed by provocateurs or employees of Western-funded NGOs in the country. More importantly in all this, we need to understand that there was no police violence (i.e. the kind of police violence we regularly see against demonstrators in Western countries) or widespread unrest on part of the demonstrators (i.e. the kind of which we see in Western countries) at any time during the demonstrations. Demonstrations have been mostly orderly and at times even jovial. The only instance when law enforcement personnel resorted to using some force was when a group of demonstrators had blocked motor-vehicle traffic on a main boulevard and police forcibly moved them after they refused to clear the street.
One of the things about these demonstrations that immediately caught my attention is how the term "Maidan" has been turned into a negative, derogatory word inside Armenian society. It seems that the term has come to mean Western manipulation, violence, destruction and chaos. This is an encouraging sign that Armenian survival instincts are alive and well. Western interests in the country, in particular, seem to be doing their best not to liken the demonstrations in Armenia to Ukraine's Maidan. This is because they are hopeful that the current movement can still be hijacked and politicized. They therefore don't want to risk ruining their prospects by labeling what's going on in Yerevan as a Maidan. An interesting dynamic is therefore taking place: Western operatives such as Paul Goble and Richard Giragosian and Western activists such as Babken DerGrigoryan are trying to avoid using the term in question to describe events in Armenia, while Russian officials and pro-Russian political observers are not shying away from describing events in Yerevan as a possible Maidan. In other words, one side is trying not to turn off the public, the other side is trying to scare the public. This essentially suggests that the Western-instigated bloody coup in Ukraine has had a great impact on Westerners, Russians and Armenians alike. I am happy to see that Armenians have learned their lesson from Ukraine quite well.
Nevertheless, the main reason cited for the electricity rate hikes is the devaluation of the Armenian Dram versus the US Dollar. But there is one other possible factor that is not getting enough attention. I personally think that the decision to sell the Vorotan Hyrdo Cascade hydroelectric power plant in southern Armenia to a major American firm may have played some form of a role in this latest mess in Armenia. It should be noted that Vorotan Hydro Cascade produces around 50% percent of Armenia's hydroelectric power and 15% of the entire electricity capacity of Armenia. As a result of the sale, we now have a situation where Armenia's energy production and distribution is controlled by two rivals, Russia and the US. In other words, our brilliant officials have handed all of Armenia's energy lifeline to two enemies who have been conspiring against each-other around the world. Was that really a smart move? Could the Vorotan sale have formed the basis of the current crisis? Could Russians or Americans be seeking to cause trouble in the country for one reason or another? Giving a major electricity producer like Vorotan Hydro Cascade to Americans while Russians control the rest of Armenia's energy production and distribution is like giving two rival mafia gangs control over your home. Is that a really smart thing to do?
Russia controlling most strategic sectors in Armenia and Western agents running free throughout Armenian society is a recipe for disaster. Even non-Armenian observers are beginning to see this. Yerevan must curb its Western activists if Armenia is to develop safely and naturally. I personally think Yerevan's complimentary politics nonsense (i.e the desire to blindly play both sides of the geopolitical fence) is now beginning to hurt Armenia.
In an interesting turn of events, but one that was only inevitable in my opinion, on evening of June 29, the presence of a number of Armenia's Western-led political opposition leaders at the main protest venue on Bagramyan Street prompted the main protest organizers to move their demonstration from Freedom Square. It was reported that they did it not to be seen as being part of the political opposition. The move however effectively split the protest into two parts: One represented by Armenia's Western-led political opposition and their followers, the other represented by the young and ostensibly apolitical activists and their followers. The following news article by John Hughes' CIA run ArmeniaNow is about what happened that evening -
It is too bad that Uncle Sam's street whores were only shouted away. They should have been beaten bloody and sent to the hospital or the morgue instead. I say this because as long as these Western-financed agents of doom and gloom are allowed to freely breath the air in Armenia, they will continue posing an existential threat to the fledgling and embattled country -
Nevertheless, what happened on the evenings of June 29 and July 02 clearly suggests that there is a discernible ideological divide between the homegrown
protest movement against the
proposed electricity rate hikes and the country's Western-financed whores. This is very promising for this suggests that Armenians are indeed developing a heightened sense of political awareness. Thus far, the young protest organizers seem to be doing their best not to be
associated with Armenia's discredited political opposition. Law enforcement authorities in Yerevan for their part seem well aware of this unique nuance and
seem to be doing their best to differentiate between genuine protesters and
Western mercenaries. With that said, with thousands of people out on the streets and hopeful jackals roaming about them, the inherent dangers of the current situation in Armenia is all too apparent.
Since political opposition groups in Armenia have been discredited in recent years, they are incapable of drawing large numbers of people into the streets. They have therefore been trying to take advantage of the current situation by trying to make it seem as if they are part of the demonstrations. For example, members from Jirayr Sefilian's Founding Parliament and Raffi Hovanissian's Heritage Party have been participating in all the demonstrations but the young protest organizers don't seem to be giving them much attention. I admit that Nikol Pashinyan's presence among demonstrators is not heartwarming in the least bit. But as much as I dislike the character, I can't in all honesty say he is directly working for Western interests. Protest organizers also seem to be doing their best not to publicly express any anti-Russian rhetoric or call into question Armenia's strategic alliance with Russia. The few EU flags seen on one particular day were not sanctioned by protest organizers. The flags in question may have been photo-shopped into pictures to either discredit the demonstrations or make them seem as if they are politically motivated. There is also the possibility that the EU flags were displayed by provocateurs or employees of Western-funded NGOs in the country. More importantly in all this, we need to understand that there was no police violence (i.e. the kind of police violence we regularly see against demonstrators in Western countries) or widespread unrest on part of the demonstrators (i.e. the kind of which we see in Western countries) at any time during the demonstrations. Demonstrations have been mostly orderly and at times even jovial. The only instance when law enforcement personnel resorted to using some force was when a group of demonstrators had blocked motor-vehicle traffic on a main boulevard and police forcibly moved them after they refused to clear the street.
One of the things about these demonstrations that immediately caught my attention is how the term "Maidan" has been turned into a negative, derogatory word inside Armenian society. It seems that the term has come to mean Western manipulation, violence, destruction and chaos. This is an encouraging sign that Armenian survival instincts are alive and well. Western interests in the country, in particular, seem to be doing their best not to liken the demonstrations in Armenia to Ukraine's Maidan. This is because they are hopeful that the current movement can still be hijacked and politicized. They therefore don't want to risk ruining their prospects by labeling what's going on in Yerevan as a Maidan. An interesting dynamic is therefore taking place: Western operatives such as Paul Goble and Richard Giragosian and Western activists such as Babken DerGrigoryan are trying to avoid using the term in question to describe events in Armenia, while Russian officials and pro-Russian political observers are not shying away from describing events in Yerevan as a possible Maidan. In other words, one side is trying not to turn off the public, the other side is trying to scare the public. This essentially suggests that the Western-instigated bloody coup in Ukraine has had a great impact on Westerners, Russians and Armenians alike. I am happy to see that Armenians have learned their lesson from Ukraine quite well.
Nevertheless, the main reason cited for the electricity rate hikes is the devaluation of the Armenian Dram versus the US Dollar. But there is one other possible factor that is not getting enough attention. I personally think that the decision to sell the Vorotan Hyrdo Cascade hydroelectric power plant in southern Armenia to a major American firm may have played some form of a role in this latest mess in Armenia. It should be noted that Vorotan Hydro Cascade produces around 50% percent of Armenia's hydroelectric power and 15% of the entire electricity capacity of Armenia. As a result of the sale, we now have a situation where Armenia's energy production and distribution is controlled by two rivals, Russia and the US. In other words, our brilliant officials have handed all of Armenia's energy lifeline to two enemies who have been conspiring against each-other around the world. Was that really a smart move? Could the Vorotan sale have formed the basis of the current crisis? Could Russians or Americans be seeking to cause trouble in the country for one reason or another? Giving a major electricity producer like Vorotan Hydro Cascade to Americans while Russians control the rest of Armenia's energy production and distribution is like giving two rival mafia gangs control over your home. Is that a really smart thing to do?
Russia controlling most strategic sectors in Armenia and Western agents running free throughout Armenian society is a recipe for disaster. Even non-Armenian observers are beginning to see this. Yerevan must curb its Western activists if Armenia is to develop safely and naturally. I personally think Yerevan's complimentary politics nonsense (i.e the desire to blindly play both sides of the geopolitical fence) is now beginning to hurt Armenia.
In an interesting turn of events, but one that was only inevitable in my opinion, on evening of June 29, the presence of a number of Armenia's Western-led political opposition leaders at the main protest venue on Bagramyan Street prompted the main protest organizers to move their demonstration from Freedom Square. It was reported that they did it not to be seen as being part of the political opposition. The move however effectively split the protest into two parts: One represented by Armenia's Western-led political opposition and their followers, the other represented by the young and ostensibly apolitical activists and their followers. The following news article by John Hughes' CIA run ArmeniaNow is about what happened that evening -
An even more interesting development occurred during the evening of July 02. That evening, Washington's street whores in Armenia, Founding Parliament clowns and one of Armenia's longest serving CIA agents, Paruyr Hayrikian, tried to make another attempt to hijack the on-going demonstrations in Yerevan with their EU flags but they were angrily shouted away by demonstrators -Baghramyan vs Opera?: Protesters in different venues urged to remain committed to single goal: http://armenianow.com/news/64937/armenia_electric_yerevan_protest_liberty_square_baghramyan
It is too bad that Uncle Sam's street whores were only shouted away. They should have been beaten bloody and sent to the hospital or the morgue instead. I say this because as long as these Western-financed agents of doom and gloom are allowed to freely breath the air in Armenia, they will continue posing an existential threat to the fledgling and embattled country -
Founding Parliament mercenaries and CIA agent Paruyr Hayrikian arrive at Yerevan's Baghramyan Avenue with EU flag (PHOTOS and VIDEO): http://news.am/eng/news/275123.html
When not politicized, demonstrations can be evolutionary
Putting
aside geopolitics for a moment, I have to say I am somewhat happy to see what appears
to be thus far some healthy, constructive and homegrown sociopolitical activism
in Armenia - without allowing Uncle Sam any room for meddling. I am happy to see all this because the importing of Western style capitalism, materialism and consumerism
into post-Soviet Armenian society during the past twenty-plus years has utterly ruined the
country economically and culturally. The current government in
Yerevan may be the lesser of evils from a geopolitical perspective, but
it is still very incompetent, especially when it comes to domestic
matters. The bottom line is that governments cannot be run like corporations. A nation cannot
be run like a for-profit institution. And a nation's primary economic agenda should not be based on the irrational notion of perpetual growth and profit. For example: Although Russia provides Armenia with one of the cheapest gas rates in the world, what the Armenian government charges the Armenian customer is altogether another matter. There are certain things
in life that government officials simply have to ensure for their
citizenry. At the very least, the cost of food, water, shelter, transportation, medical
care, education, fuel and electricity have to be kept at affordable levels for the average citizenry.
Armenia
has been suffering from over twenty years of Western style crony
capitalism, plutocracy, monopolies, materialism and greed with all the corruption, criminality and mismanagement that comes with it.
I
am therefore happy to see politically non-aligned young men and women
taking to the streets to demand better governance from their leaders.
For many years I have been saying that Armenia needs sociopolitical evolution, not a Western-sponsored revolution. Genuinely homegrown, constructive and peaceful protest movements - not revolutions, but peaceful demonstrations - against government mismanagement is a healthy, evolutionary process that is crucially important for the organic development of any nation - as long as they are not co-opted by Western interests.
What I see on the streets of Yerevan thus far may be the beginnings of sociopolitical evolution in Armenia. With that said, Armenian authorities and protest organizers now need to find some common ground and negotiate an end to this affair. The sooner this is done, the better will it be for all. Conversely, the longer this drags, the greater will the risks be. I say this because no one knows how long protest organizers will be able to keep Western/American meddling out of their movement. Moreover, no one knows how long the relative restraint currently being practiced by both sides, police and demonstrators, will be maintained either. In my opinion, the real danger we face with the current situation comes from Western mercenaries. Similar to what they did in Kiev during the Maidan uprising, they may kill protesters or security personnel to incite widespread bloodshed. Tragic events in Ukraine during the winter of 2013/2014 vividly showed us all that this is a very real possibility. In fact, stuff like this is exactly what US embassies, especially the large ones, specializes in around the world.
To develop naturally, Armenia needs less exposure to the political West
For a nation that willingly and enthusiastically flirts with Western powers (i.e. complimentary politics), there will always be the danger of homegrown sociopolitical movements getting usurped by Western interests. As long as Armenia's incompetent and money-hungry leaders continue giving Western interests a warm place inside Armenian society, every single natural growing pain in Armenia will continue being exploited and used against the country. This is a very real danger for a small, impoverished, blockaded and embattled nation like Armenia. This is a very real danger for a nation that is allied to Russia but hosts hundreds of Western-financed NGOs, dozens of Western-financed propaganda outlets, an army of Western-financed political activists, one of the largest US embassies in the world and an American university to boot!!!
For many years I have been saying that Armenia needs sociopolitical evolution, not a Western-sponsored revolution. Genuinely homegrown, constructive and peaceful protest movements - not revolutions, but peaceful demonstrations - against government mismanagement is a healthy, evolutionary process that is crucially important for the organic development of any nation - as long as they are not co-opted by Western interests.
What I see on the streets of Yerevan thus far may be the beginnings of sociopolitical evolution in Armenia. With that said, Armenian authorities and protest organizers now need to find some common ground and negotiate an end to this affair. The sooner this is done, the better will it be for all. Conversely, the longer this drags, the greater will the risks be. I say this because no one knows how long protest organizers will be able to keep Western/American meddling out of their movement. Moreover, no one knows how long the relative restraint currently being practiced by both sides, police and demonstrators, will be maintained either. In my opinion, the real danger we face with the current situation comes from Western mercenaries. Similar to what they did in Kiev during the Maidan uprising, they may kill protesters or security personnel to incite widespread bloodshed. Tragic events in Ukraine during the winter of 2013/2014 vividly showed us all that this is a very real possibility. In fact, stuff like this is exactly what US embassies, especially the large ones, specializes in around the world.
To develop naturally, Armenia needs less exposure to the political West
For a nation that willingly and enthusiastically flirts with Western powers (i.e. complimentary politics), there will always be the danger of homegrown sociopolitical movements getting usurped by Western interests. As long as Armenia's incompetent and money-hungry leaders continue giving Western interests a warm place inside Armenian society, every single natural growing pain in Armenia will continue being exploited and used against the country. This is a very real danger for a small, impoverished, blockaded and embattled nation like Armenia. This is a very real danger for a nation that is allied to Russia but hosts hundreds of Western-financed NGOs, dozens of Western-financed propaganda outlets, an army of Western-financed political activists, one of the largest US embassies in the world and an American university to boot!!!
The danger that Armenia faces from Western powers today is essentially why many Armenians such as myself tolerate the largely ineffective leadership we have in Yerevan as the lesser political evil.
By that I mean to say many politically aware Armenians who truly love their homeland are constantly worried that under certain circumstances Western interests within Armenia's porous political landscape will turn the country into yet another Greece, Serbia, Georgia or Ukraine. Armenia is too vulnerable to survive such an affair. Faced with the danger of a color revolution in the country, Armenians such as myself are thus forced to put up with our current government's incompetence, corruption and mismanagement. This ultimately is one of the ways in which Western meddling in Armenia's internal affairs continues to stunt the country's sociopolitical evolution. Ultimately, for it to develop organically, Armenia needs less exposure to the West.
There are those who say with better governance in Yerevan Western powers will be less likely to manipulate the Armenian street. While I agree that Armenia desperately needs better governance, better governance does not necessarily mean Western powers will not be able to manipulate the Armenian street. Let's not be stupid enough to believe that merely with better governance the Armenian street will be less inclined to fall for Western manipulation.
When
it comes to understanding international relations and geopolitics, we
Armenians are no better any other sheeple. Armenians may have good survival instincts but Armenians remain largely politically illiterate, not to mention in love for all things European or American. Armenians must therefore somehow be made to recognize that Western powers are the
absolute masters of manipulation and exploitation and they continue being the root cause of all man-made
catastrophes around the world today.
Generally speaking, Armenians have always had a European/American fetish and are therefore naturally susceptible to political manipulation by Western powers. Even if Armenia was being run beautifully by wonderful politicians, as long as Yerevan chose to remain within the Russian orbit (which is where Armenia has to remain for its survival), Western powers would still be able to appeal to the Armenian street to cause sociopolitical problems in the country. Therefore, better governance by Armenian officials would not necessarily lessen the Western threat. Moreover, people also fail to realize that despite our best efforts, due to Armenia's less-than ideal geographic location and the geopolitical circumstances in the south Caucasus, attaining any form of a higher standard of living for the population in Armenia will prove elusive for many years. Being within the Russian orbit and facing the severe hardships of the south Caucasus will therefore keep Armenia vulnerable to Western machinations.
I'd like to remind the reader that Libyans once enjoyed the best living standard in all of Africa and one of the best living standards in the world. Yet, due to Tripoli's political independence (i.e. its desire to create pan-African unity) and incompetence (i.e. desiring close relations with Western powers), Libya became targeted for destruction by the "democratic" West. Today, after NATO powers militarily helped Al-Qaeda type Islamic extremists to overthrow Qaddafi, Libya has quite literally become hell on earth. But don't expect CNN, BBC or Agence France Presse to tell you this, do the research on Libya yourself to see how the country was before and after Western powers brought "democracy" to the country.
Geopolitically speaking, if Western powers do not have direct or indirect control over a nation, particularly control over its financial system, that nation becomes a target of the Western world. And the more strategic or wealthier a nation is, the bigger target it becomes. Why? Because for the Western world to maintain its political hegemony, wealth and influence over humanity, the rest of the world has to be made to live in squalor. Western powers want nations in their pockets or under their boots. In other words, bullies don't like competition of any kind.
So, seeing what we have been seeing around the world in recent years, why do we have significant numbers of Armenians still running to Western powers for support?
Because we Armenians do yet fully understand the dangers our homeland faces from the Western world. Because we Armenians have a Western fetish. Because we Armenians do not yet fully understand the dangers of Western money, Western aid, Western corporations, Western NGOs, American schools, American embassies, American music, American films and the psychological conditioning power of the English language.
Their grip over humanity is unprecedented. Their grip over humanity is cultural and psychological. In fact, it's we the sheeple that give them their power over us. Look at it this way: If we want to speak their language, earn their money, live in their lands, learn in their schools, sing their songs, watch their films, eat their foods, wear their clothing - they have already won half the battle. If we are so eager to be like them, how would we ever think of them as our enemy? If we are so open to their cultural values and their way of life, they will easily infiltrate our society and usurp our nation.
Generally speaking, Armenians have always had a European/American fetish and are therefore naturally susceptible to political manipulation by Western powers. Even if Armenia was being run beautifully by wonderful politicians, as long as Yerevan chose to remain within the Russian orbit (which is where Armenia has to remain for its survival), Western powers would still be able to appeal to the Armenian street to cause sociopolitical problems in the country. Therefore, better governance by Armenian officials would not necessarily lessen the Western threat. Moreover, people also fail to realize that despite our best efforts, due to Armenia's less-than ideal geographic location and the geopolitical circumstances in the south Caucasus, attaining any form of a higher standard of living for the population in Armenia will prove elusive for many years. Being within the Russian orbit and facing the severe hardships of the south Caucasus will therefore keep Armenia vulnerable to Western machinations.
I'd like to remind the reader that Libyans once enjoyed the best living standard in all of Africa and one of the best living standards in the world. Yet, due to Tripoli's political independence (i.e. its desire to create pan-African unity) and incompetence (i.e. desiring close relations with Western powers), Libya became targeted for destruction by the "democratic" West. Today, after NATO powers militarily helped Al-Qaeda type Islamic extremists to overthrow Qaddafi, Libya has quite literally become hell on earth. But don't expect CNN, BBC or Agence France Presse to tell you this, do the research on Libya yourself to see how the country was before and after Western powers brought "democracy" to the country.
Geopolitically speaking, if Western powers do not have direct or indirect control over a nation, particularly control over its financial system, that nation becomes a target of the Western world. And the more strategic or wealthier a nation is, the bigger target it becomes. Why? Because for the Western world to maintain its political hegemony, wealth and influence over humanity, the rest of the world has to be made to live in squalor. Western powers want nations in their pockets or under their boots. In other words, bullies don't like competition of any kind.
So, seeing what we have been seeing around the world in recent years, why do we have significant numbers of Armenians still running to Western powers for support?
Because we Armenians do yet fully understand the dangers our homeland faces from the Western world. Because we Armenians have a Western fetish. Because we Armenians do not yet fully understand the dangers of Western money, Western aid, Western corporations, Western NGOs, American schools, American embassies, American music, American films and the psychological conditioning power of the English language.
Their grip over humanity is unprecedented. Their grip over humanity is cultural and psychological. In fact, it's we the sheeple that give them their power over us. Look at it this way: If we want to speak their language, earn their money, live in their lands, learn in their schools, sing their songs, watch their films, eat their foods, wear their clothing - they have already won half the battle. If we are so eager to be like them, how would we ever think of them as our enemy? If we are so open to their cultural values and their way of life, they will easily infiltrate our society and usurp our nation.
Consequently, due to Yerevan’s counterproductive "complimentary politics" of the past twenty-plus years, large numbers of Western operatives have embedded themselves within the country today and are waiting on the political
sidelines to take advantage of any political unrest. If the
current, unpopular government is somehow toppled, rest assure that Uncle Sam’s servants
will be the ones best positioned to snatch political power in Yerevan.
This is not a far-fetched scenario. There are significant numbers of
West-leaning, self-destructive peasantry throughout Armenian society
that stubbornly refuses to learn anything from the mistakes made by
Argentinians, Venezuelans, Libyans, Egyptians, Syrians, Greeks,
Serbians, Georgians and Ukrainians. And many of these characters are found within Armenia's political landscape.
I reiterate: Armenia is too vulnerable to survive such a mistake. I would rather see Russia takeover Armenia militarily before a Western-backed revolution becomes a reality in the country. But I do not want it to come to that. We didn't wait nearly one thousand years for our nation's independence to simply hand it back to foreigners, regardless of who they are.
Therefore, there has got to be a clear red line placed between allowing sociopolitical activism and protecting the country from Western manipulation. Thus far, I see Armenian officials doing a good job managing the situation in the country. If however the current protest movement gets co-opted by Western interests or if protesters are coerced to resort to violence or vandalism as it happened back in 2008, I would expect - I would demand - law enforcement authorities in the country to use all means necessary to restore law and order. Because at the end of the day, I rather live with our chobans-in-Armani-suits than face the dire consequences of a Ukraine-style regime change. But we can't continue on with the status quo indefinitely either. Armenians need to pursue sociopolitical change in the country without the constant fear that it will turn into a color revolution.
This is a serious national dilemma and a conundrum.
I reiterate: Armenia is too vulnerable to survive such a mistake. I would rather see Russia takeover Armenia militarily before a Western-backed revolution becomes a reality in the country. But I do not want it to come to that. We didn't wait nearly one thousand years for our nation's independence to simply hand it back to foreigners, regardless of who they are.
Therefore, there has got to be a clear red line placed between allowing sociopolitical activism and protecting the country from Western manipulation. Thus far, I see Armenian officials doing a good job managing the situation in the country. If however the current protest movement gets co-opted by Western interests or if protesters are coerced to resort to violence or vandalism as it happened back in 2008, I would expect - I would demand - law enforcement authorities in the country to use all means necessary to restore law and order. Because at the end of the day, I rather live with our chobans-in-Armani-suits than face the dire consequences of a Ukraine-style regime change. But we can't continue on with the status quo indefinitely either. Armenians need to pursue sociopolitical change in the country without the constant fear that it will turn into a color revolution.
This is a serious national dilemma and a conundrum.
A way to remedy this impasse is to lessen the influence Western powers currently have in the country. The time has come therefore to shut down all Western-funded NGOs
and news outlets and expel all Western-funded political
activists and politicians from the country. Armenia's security services need to closely monitor the
daily activities the US embassy in Yerevan as well as all US affiliated
institutions in Armenia. It is high time for
Armenian law enforcement authorities to learn from the Russian experience and begin cracking down on any
organization or individual that is financed by Western interests so that
the rest of us can start the long and difficult process of nation building without the
constant threat of Western-backed political revolutions hanging over our heads.
But right
now we need to understand that the main danger we face is the danger of foreign
mercenaries stirring the pot in Armenia.
The sociopolitical conditions in the country today are in fact ripe. If killings or shootings do take place, it can spark wide-scale violence throughout the country. And if shootings or killings do take place it will be the work of either Anglo-American or Turkish provocateurs. It remains to be seen however if any of the aforementioned really want to turn Armenia into another Ukraine. I am not yet convinced they do. If Armenia descends into political chaos, Artsakh may face an attack from Azerbaijan. Facing the potential loss of Armenia and/or Artsakh, Russia will definitely get involved militarily. Moscow has also not concealed its preparedness to create a land corridor to its 102nd base through Georgia in Armenia if it's position in the country is threatened. I do not think Western powers are ready to risk a Russian invasion of the south Caucasus simply because annexation of Crimea was enough of a shock for them. They also would not want to risk being cut-off from Azeri gas supplies. I therefore do not think Western powers (or Turks) will resort to the dirty tactics they used in Ukraine. But they will definitely continue encouraging all forms of sociopolitical unrest in Armenia in order to continue putting pressure on Yerevan and keep Armenia politically, economically and financially vulnerable.
The sociopolitical conditions in the country today are in fact ripe. If killings or shootings do take place, it can spark wide-scale violence throughout the country. And if shootings or killings do take place it will be the work of either Anglo-American or Turkish provocateurs. It remains to be seen however if any of the aforementioned really want to turn Armenia into another Ukraine. I am not yet convinced they do. If Armenia descends into political chaos, Artsakh may face an attack from Azerbaijan. Facing the potential loss of Armenia and/or Artsakh, Russia will definitely get involved militarily. Moscow has also not concealed its preparedness to create a land corridor to its 102nd base through Georgia in Armenia if it's position in the country is threatened. I do not think Western powers are ready to risk a Russian invasion of the south Caucasus simply because annexation of Crimea was enough of a shock for them. They also would not want to risk being cut-off from Azeri gas supplies. I therefore do not think Western powers (or Turks) will resort to the dirty tactics they used in Ukraine. But they will definitely continue encouraging all forms of sociopolitical unrest in Armenia in order to continue putting pressure on Yerevan and keep Armenia politically, economically and financially vulnerable.
I reiterate: Armenia desperately needs a healthy sociopolitical movement
because after twenty-plus years of economic stagnation and cultural degradation, Armenia desperately needs sociopolitical evolution.
We will have to wait and see if Armenia can finally have a genuinely homegrown (perhaps even an inherently anti-West) political opposition movement that the masses will respect or descend into chaos as it happened in Ukraine. I personally do not think a Maidan scenario is possible in Armenia: Armenians are not as Russophobic, violent or politically suicidal as Ukrainians. So, let's hope the current protest movement is able to plant some healthy seeds of change. But since we live in an Anglo-American-Jewish era in human history, I have to also keep reminding myself - as well as anyone that is willing to listen to me - that Western powers do not have any shortages of activists anywhere on earth and that Armenia continues to be vulnerable to Western machinations. I do not want to make any concrete predictions for what is yet to come. Mostly likely the current situation will be remedied in the coming days. But there is also the possibility, albeit remote, that the current situation will get out of control and perhaps morph into a color revolution. The next few weeks will therefore be crucial. In the meanwhile, Armenians needs to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
We will have to wait and see if Armenia can finally have a genuinely homegrown (perhaps even an inherently anti-West) political opposition movement that the masses will respect or descend into chaos as it happened in Ukraine. I personally do not think a Maidan scenario is possible in Armenia: Armenians are not as Russophobic, violent or politically suicidal as Ukrainians. So, let's hope the current protest movement is able to plant some healthy seeds of change. But since we live in an Anglo-American-Jewish era in human history, I have to also keep reminding myself - as well as anyone that is willing to listen to me - that Western powers do not have any shortages of activists anywhere on earth and that Armenia continues to be vulnerable to Western machinations. I do not want to make any concrete predictions for what is yet to come. Mostly likely the current situation will be remedied in the coming days. But there is also the possibility, albeit remote, that the current situation will get out of control and perhaps morph into a color revolution. The next few weeks will therefore be crucial. In the meanwhile, Armenians needs to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.
Exploitation of millions of young activists from around the world
Since we are on the topic of the exploitation of humanity towards Western imperial gains, I would like to bring the reader's attention to the following speech given by a senior Western official. The words you will read in the following quote are that of Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of the strategic masterminds of the American empire. The video link posted below Brzezinski's picture is to a 2010 speech he gave in Montreal during a Council on Foreign Relations meeting and the text below it are excepts from his "The global political awakening" speech he gave back in 2008. Please pay close attention -
The Global Political Awakening
Brzezinski Speech (2010): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEHsUojUgzk
"For the first time in human history almost all of humanity is politically activated, politically conscious and politically interactive... The resulting global political activism is generating a surge in the quest for personal dignity, cultural respect and economic opportunity in a world painfully scarred by memories of centuries-long alien colonial or imperial domination... The worldwide yearning for human dignity is the central challenge inherent in the phenomenon of global political awakening... That awakening is socially massive and politically radicalizing... The nearly universal access to radio, television and increasingly the Internet is creating a community of shared perceptions and envy that can be galvanized and channeled by demagogic political or religious passions."Well folks, there you have it: Right from the source. Please note that he made these comments before the Arab Spring and Ukraine. They have been riding one crisis to the next since he spoke these words. Which brings to mind Rahm Immanuel's words: Never let a serious crisis to go to waste. And if a crisis does not occur naturally, why not create a crisis? Nevertheless, isn't what Brzezinski conceptualized and seemed to be suggesting some years ago exactly what's going on around the world today? Aren't Western NGOs, social media networks and experts like Dr Gene Sharp being used to manipulate the pent-up hate of potential revolutionaries around the world, which as Brzezinski said were "already semi-mobilized in large congregations, connected by the Internet and prepositioned"? It's also fascinating to see that the imperial hubris of Western officials like Brzezinski are such that they see young revolutionaries around the world as coming from "often intellectually dubious tertiary level educational institutions of developing countries". And isn't it troubling to realize that Western officials such as Brzezinski seem to be hoping for when he says "these millions of students are revolutionaries-in-waiting, their physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred".
"These energies transcend sovereign borders and pose a challenge both to existing states as well as to the existing global hierarchy, on top of which America still perches... The youth of the Third World are particularly restless and resentful. The demographic revolution they embody is thus a political time-bomb, as well..."
"Their potential revolutionary spearhead is likely to emerge from among the scores of millions of students concentrated in the often intellectually dubious "tertiary level" educational institutions of developing countries. Depending on the definition of the tertiary educational level, there are currently worldwide between 80 and 130 million "college" students. Typically originating from the socially insecure lower middle class and inflamed by a sense of social outrage, these millions of students are revolutionaries-in-waiting, already semi-mobilized in large congregations, connected by the Internet and pre-positioned for a replay on a larger scale of what transpired years earlier in Mexico City or in Tiananmen Square. Their physical energy and emotional frustration is just waiting to be triggered by a cause, or a faith, or a hatred..."
"[The] major world powers, new and old, also face a novel reality: while the lethality of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people."
Zbigniew Brzezinski is Former U.S. National Security Advisor for President Carter, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member and co-founder of the Trilateral Commission and board of trustees at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Aren't the "emotionally frustrated and hateful student revolutionaries" from Libya, Syria and Ukraine the same ones Western powers manipulated into destroying their nations?
This is scary stuff, especially when you juxtapose what Brzezinski said back in 2008 and 2010 with what has been transpiring around the world since 2011. And now you know who and what Armenia's not so little army of "revolutionaries-in-waiting" that go by the title of "rights advocates", "political activists" and "independent journalists" are directly or indirectly working for every time they try to rise-up against their government. Whether they realize it or not, their political activism in Armenia is only serving to advance Western imperial interests in the country.
Therefore, let there be no doubts as to why Western powers (and US government connected influential individuals and organizations in the Western world) have been spending tens-of-billions of dollars in trying to create "open societies" around the world. As we have seen in recent years, former Soviet nations have been targeted by these architects of social engineering. Under lofty banners designed to play on people's emotions, Western operatives throughout former Soviet society have been seeding nations with seeds of destruction for the past twenty years. Ukraine, Libya and Syria become their worst victim. At the end of the day, we Armenians need to sober up and look at the political West and their activists in Armenia from within the following context -
Does the US engineering revolutions?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpXbA6yZY-8
Documents Leaked by WikiLeaks Show an Organization Training Opposition Around the World: http://revolution-news.com/documents-leaked-wikileaks-show-organization-trains-opposition-around-world/
Dr. Gene Sharp: How to Start a Revolution: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1birds_how-to-start-a-revolution_news
Revolution Engineering: US know-how and 'colourful' technology: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0xlOeZ8Dr8&feature=plcp
South of the Border: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vBlV5TUI64
The Weight of Chains | Težina lanaca (2010): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waEYQ46gH08
NGOs, an extension of US foreign policy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-raqX4KKY1Q
Washington on the War Path: Civil Society as Battering-Ram: http://rt.com/politics/washington-war-russia-putin-023/
US NGO uncovered in Ukraine protest: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/01/07/us-ngo-uncovered-in-ukraine-protests/#sthash.mJPpqq63.dpuf
U.S. Groups Helped Nurture Arab Uprisings: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html?pagewanted=1&_r=3&emc=eta1&
George Soros and his open society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ncdisau7rBs
Czechs open center for civil society activists from ex-Soviet countries: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/czechs-open-center-civil-society-activists-ex-soviet-145849840.html
Had Armenia's current regime been in bed with Washington, they would have been the darlings of the south Caucasus alongside the Islamist Erdogan, the tyrant Aliyev and the dictator Saakashvili. Had Yerevan been one of Washington's many stomping grounds, however, Armenia would have been turned into Turkey's eastern most province by now, at least economically. We need to understand that Armenia is a nuisance, or an obstacle, getting in the way of Western desires in the south Caucasus. As long as Armenia remains within its crucially important strategic alliance with the Russian Federation and in doing so empowers Moscow in the region, I'm afraid there is nothing Yerevan can do that will be acceptable in the eyes of Washington and its servants throughout Armenian society. As a result, similar to what they have done in the Arab world, Washington will continue conditioning the minds of our self-destructive peasantry with the hopes that it can eventually use them against the Armenian state when the time is right.
Zbigniew Brzezinski reminds us that the Soviet Union was an easy thing to fear for the average person for much of the 20th century. Moscow's seemingly threatening posture at the time, as well as the prospects of Marxism coming to a nation nearby helped in concealing the true face of the Western political order. Since the Soviet collapse, however, the mask has come off and the political West has been revealed to be a bloodthirsty monster of global proportions. Therefore, Zbigniew Brzezinski also reminds us that being stupid during the Cold War was one thing, when an ominous threat presumably existed on the other side of the Iron Curtain, being stupid now, in this age of information and after what we have seen and experienced during the past twenty years, is totally inexcusable.
How the U.S. Government Co-opted Human Rights
Continuing on the topic of Western manipulation and exploitation of human society, let's take look at some of the ways with which Western powers manipulate and exploit the gullible, the decadent, the disgruntled, the psychologically disturbed.
Regardless of how beneficial or even necessary they may seem at first glance, any movement that has any form of Western-backing or is spearheaded by Western-led or inspired activists need to be categorically rejected. I say this because imperial interests in Washington have co-opted and weaponized sociopolitical issues and are currently exploiting them towards self-serving political gains. Accepting help, in any form, from the political West comes with dangerous strings attached, conditions that developing nations such as Armenia or the Ukraine cannot meet. I ask you to refer to a book by James Peck regarding this very important topic for our era -
Ideal Illusions: How the U.S. Government Co-opted Human Rights
"Devastating and deeply disturbing, this book lays bare any lingering illusions that human rights concerns seriously influence U.S. policy."—Andrew J. Bacevich, author of Washington Rules. The United States has long been hailed as a powerful force for global human rights. Now, drawing on thousands of documents from the CIA, the National Security Council, the Pentagon, and development agencies, James Peck shows in blunt detail how Washington has shaped human rights into a potent ideological weapon for purposes having little to do with rights—and everything to do with furthering America's global reach. Using the words of Washington's leaders when they are speaking among themselves, Peck tracks the rise of human rights from its dismissal in the cold war years as "fuzzy minded" to its calculated adoption, after the Vietnam War, as a rationale for American foreign engagement. He considers such milestones as the fight for Soviet dissidents, Tiananmen Square, and today's war on terror, exposing in the process how the human rights movement has too often failed to challenge Washington's strategies. A gripping and elegant work of analysis, Ideal Illusions argues that the movement must break free from Washington if it is to develop a truly uncompromising critique of power in all its forms"Yes, many of the world's Hollywood-struck sheeple these days are indeed suffering from ideal illusions. These sheeple are the cannon-fodder Washington exploits against developing nations that are not in their pockets or under their boots. Now, to place the enlightening book featured above into a better, more complete perspective, juxtaposed its message to the following book titled "From Dictatorship to Democracy". Unlike the previous book's author, the following book was written by an American with a Western/Globalist political agenda. Unlike the previous book's intent, this work by Gene Sharp is essentially a step-by-step blueprint for revolution and its primary target (i.e. those it is trying to bait) are freaks of society and the disgruntled masses -
From Dictatorship to Democracy
"From Dictatorship to Democracy was a pamphlet, printed and distributed by Dr Gene Sharp and based on his study, over a period of forty years, on non-violent methods of demonstration. Now in its fourth edition, it was originally handed out by the Albert Einstein Institution, and although never actively promoted, to date it has been translated into thirty-one languages. This astonishing book travelled as a photocopied pamphlet from Burma to Indonesia, Serbia and most recently Egypt, Tunisia and Syria, with dissent in China also reported. Surreptitiously handed out amongst youth uprisings the world over - how the 'how-to' guide came about and its role in the recent Arab uprisings is an extraordinary tale. Once read you'll find yourself urging others to read it and indeed want to gift it"When Western financed civic society organizations gather their diverse operatives to form networks and workshops and make global connections during their annual meetings and conventions, these are the types of publications they disseminate and this is the kind of inspiration at work behind their activism. We must for once recognize that virtually every single societal matter found around the world today - be it Islamic militancy or gay rights or planned parenthood or nature protection - is ultimately being financed, controlled and/or exploited by Western imperial interests. As the first book by James Peck courageously suggests: Sociopolitical movements of the world today must first break free of Western control if they are to be safely embraced by developing societies. As the second book by Gene Sharp reveals, many of the democracy uprising we are seeing in various parts of the world get their funding and inspiration from Western sources.
"Free media" is a serious vulnerability
In 1969, British historian and aesthetician Sir Kenneth Clark stated: "It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilization. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs."
In 2004, a Dutch paper called "The Effects of Strategic News on Political Cynicism" claimed that the way a news media presents the news can cause political cynicism.
They have the tools to set the political mood of a society. They have the tools to sow political unrest. They first destroy the spirit through an information war, after which they can easily destroy the body either through economic/financial blackmail or war. Softening your opposition and making it susceptible collapse is what propaganda and psy-ops is all about. For Western powers, free media simply means media controlled by Western interests. Therefore, keep this in mind next time you read news articles produced by Armenian news outlets based in the US or come across news reports put out by Armenia's Western-led political opposition. Most of the news reports and political commentaries put out by such sources are designed to convey outrage against the Armenian state and sow hopelessness among Armenians. They are therefore meant to break down the spirit and sow the seeds of political unrest.
Now you know why Western powers have been encouraging Armenian opposition officials, journalists and political activists to disseminate negative news about Armenia on a constant basis. Their constant sky is falling rhetoric is how they have killed the Armenian spirit. Much of the reason behind why Armenians have been demoralized and why there is political instability and a powerful sense of hopelessness in Armenia in recent years is precisely due to the hysteria fomented by the Western-led opposition news press in Armenia. Armenia is suffering from a persistence campaign of doom and gloom. Every single growing pain in the country is being co-opted by Western-led opposition news media and turned into a fiasco.
In an age where information and the manner in which it is presented can be a weapon of mass destruction, one of the vulnerabilities Armenia currently has is its news press. I say this because Armenia's news media has been and continues to be much freer than its counterparts in the "democratic" West where a handful of government connected men control virtually the entire news media. Armenian news media is represented heavily by political opposition groups in the country and in the traditional Diaspora that are Western connected, whereas no real political opposition exists in any Western nation. Many Armenians naively rejoiced when news came out last year that Armenia is leading its region in press freedoms was made public. But that is not enough for them, they want more press freedoms in Armenia -
Armenia Must Seek Further Press Freedom: http://asbarez.com/127481/armenia-%E2%80%98must-seek-further-press-freedom%E2%80%99/
"[The Dulles brothers] were able to succeed [at regime change] in Iran and Guatemala because those were democratic societies, they were open societies. They had free press; there were all kinds of independent organizations; there were professional groups; there were labor unions; there were student groups; there were religious organizations. When you have an open society, it's very easy for covert operatives to penetrate that society and corrupt it." Stephen Kinzer, NPR Radio InterviewThe same and worst is being done around the world on a much grander scale. They have the money. They have the expertise. They have the experience. When they are given the freedom, they waste no time in spreading their politically motivated spin and disinformation and in doing so spread their seeds of war and political unrest. Nations of Venezuela, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Serbia and Ukraine have been recent victims of Western manipulation. Controlling and manipulating news has become a preferred weapon of choice for Western officials and many Western journalists have consequently become combatants. Please make sure to see the following -
Faking It: How the Media Manipulates the World into War: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4P2O8UjQeU&feature=player_embedded#!
Behind The Big News: Propaganda and the CFR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmKiiY_HqsY
Amber Lyon reveals CNN lies and war propaganda: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFDC7zmJgQg&feature=plcp
Pentagon spent millions studying how to influence social media in Darpa-funded research: http://rt.com/usa/171356-darpa-social-media-study/
As long as Yerevan tolerates its Western-led political opposition freaks and bestows upon them legitimate sounding titles such as "patriot", "political activist", "musician", "rights advocate", "environmentalist", "expert" or "journalist", Armenia will remain a weak state, not taken seriously by any of the world major powers, including by our only ally in the north. The global community only understands the display of power and unity. The global community only respects those who respect themselves. This is why Turks have historically been successful. This is why nations such as Armenia and Greece has historically been failures.
Yerevan is vulnerable to Western manipulation because Armenia has more than ample political freedoms and because Armenians have a love for all things Western. In fact, politically, Armenia is much freer than the US. When was the last time the US had political parties and political activists as diverse or as violent or as competitive as the ones that exist in Armenia today? Never. Why? Because Western officials realize that "political diversity" is not an advantage, it's a serious problem. Western world has been powerful because of its entrenched elite and centuries of human exploitation, peace and plunder - not because of its fictitious political freedoms. Had political diversity been a healthy thing for developing nations, Western powers would not be pushing it upon their enemies. What Armenia needs today is tighter control of its Western funded news agencies, NGOs and activists. What Yerevan needs to do is less exposure to Western powers. Armenia is too small. Armenians are too few. We Armenians simply cannot afford the kind of mistakes made by Serbians, Georgians and Ukrainians.
Some of the ways they prepare their operatives
Since we are still on the topic of Western exploitation of humanity, let's look at some of the ways they prepare their operatives. Although the Anglo-American educational system is regularly ranked among the lowest in the developed world, the hype created by the Anglo-American global propaganda machine is so powerful that a majority of the sheeple in the world actually look forward to sending their impressionable sheeplets to the Anglo-American world for an "education". What a situation like this essentially does is that it gives senior policymakers in the Anglo-American world a very large pool of "human resources" that they easily can tap into and exploit towards political purposes. This is essentially why they periodically look for Armenian students to condition, of course free of charge. This method of recruitment is one of the most effective ways to obtain and prepare operatives that eventually go back to work in their lands of birth. Incidentally, a good example of a western educated political activist in Armenia is a London resident that goes by the name of Babken Der Grigoryan. He can be seen in the following picture holding an anti-Putin placard the day President Putin was in Yerevan visiting the Armenian Genocide memorial -
Incidentally, this disgusting Babken character is very actively involved in the current demonstrations in Yerevan. Ultimately, it is unsavory assholes like him that taint the current protest movement and present it with its risks.
Having a large pool of energetic and ideologically pliant army of western educated young activists is one of the West's most powerful weapon - after American pop culture of course. In recent years we have seen many examples of how Western officials use western educated young men and women from places such as Venezuela, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt, China, Serbia, Greece, Ukraine, Russia and Armenia against their homelands. We periodically see such types on CNN or BBC justifying Western actions, including military hostility against their homelands.
I reiterate: Their grip over humanity is cultural and psychological.
Think of it this way: If we want to speak their language, earn their money, live in their lands, learn in their schools, sing their songs, dance to their music, watch their films, eat their foods, wear their clothing... how would we ever see them as the enemy? Ultimately, our love for all things Western/American is what gives them their power over us and makes it easier for them to manipulate and exploit us.
Let's take a closer look at some aspects of mental processes that makes an individual pliable to Western manipulation and make him or her actively seek the Westernization of Armenia.
A twenty-something year old from one of Armenia's many slums or backward villages suddenly opens his or her eyes in hustle-and-bustle of London, Paris, New York or Washington. Just imagine their awe, their excitement, their heightened consciousness. Imagine what it would be like for a young man or woman from a poor family in Armenia when they are given the opportunity to live and/or study in the western world. Try to put yourselves into their shoes and try to think of what their impressions would be as they walk the beautifully manicured Ivy League university campuses of the most powerful empire the world has known. How enjoyable it would be for them frolic with youth from all around the world and do so without any cultural inhibitions. Would it be far-fetched to think that these young people would be more than willing to emotionally attach themselves to the political system of the land they are so awe struck by, the system that gave them an opportunity to leave their dilapidated towns for the opulence they find themselves in? After living through Communism and Crony Capitalism, after experiencing firsthand Armenia's severe growing pains, after suffering impoverishment or unemployment, after growing up listening to the ubiquitous anti-Armenia hate-speech of all the grownups around them... of course these impressionable, naive and psychologically vulnerable individuals will be in total awe of the seemingly magnificent political system.
A common thought going through their impressionable minds would be: Why don't we have this kind of life back in our homeland? Why cant we have such diversity and freedoms back where we come from?
By consciously and enthusiastically latching themselves onto the Western system of things, they subconsciously convince themselves that they are trying to bring "progressive values" to their underdeveloped and backward homeland. They are also simply happy to have the opportunity to have a job, an education and some self-worth, all of which they lacked back in their homeland.
This type of superficial and shortsighted - yet utterly human - thinking lies at the very root of a natural psychological process that takes young men and women down the path to assimilation (a best case scenario) or treason (a worst case scenario). These young adults unwittingly and sometimes wittingly become the "human resources" Western powers exploit for their imperial agenda.
The aforementioned natural processes of turning simple, poor folk from Armenia into enthusiastic activists for the political West can of course be applied to virtually all nations on earth today. Even the world's second largest economy, China, is not immune. A recent survey conducted in China suggested that a majority of China's wealthy would prefer sending their children to the US for an education - even though their educational system is known to be better than that of the US. And in some cases, young men and women don't even need to travel to any Western nation to receive a western education. For example: There is a much beloved American University providing western education right in the heart of Yerevan.
Nevertheless, millions of young people are given the opportunity to study (i.e. get brainwashed) in Western institutions and a select few among them get recruited to become active operatives for Western governments. Therefore, keep this in mind for next time you are watching CNN or BBC and you see a western educated Arab, Russian, Iranian - or an Armenian - publicly criticizing and/or attacking his or her homeland.
The quality of education in the Anglo-American world's universities, even the "Ivy League" ones, are in no way superior to their counterparts around the world. It can be argued, for instance, that generally speaking students in Germany, France, Finland, Japan, China or Russia receive far better college educations. However, it should be noted that the thing that sets Western universities apart from their counterparts around the world is the priceless value of a thing called - networking - that students get to do, especially in "elite" Ivy League educational institutions such as Oxford, Cambridge, Yale or Harvard. These are the magnificent campuses where sons and daughters of kings and queens, presidents and prime ministers, tyrants and dictators, oligarchs and business tycoons meet and mingle, and often times make friendships that lasts a lifetime. These are also the ideal environments where Western intelligence operatives freely roam looking for prospects.
They already have a pool of millions of young, naive, pliable minds yearning to learn English and become Westernized. Western powers therefore don't have to look hard for willing or unwitting operatives. All they need to do is just put out a sign and potential recruits will flood in.
It should also be noted that homosexuals also figure prominently in this discussion.
As we all know, the Western world has become the epicenter of homosexuality. As a result of the Westernization and Globalization of human society, homosexuality is also on the rise around the world as more-and-more "closet homosexuals" are coming out in the open and a new generation of children are being encouraged to "explore" their sexuality. We know that the promotion of homosexuality and ultra-liberalism is one of the ways the Globalist elite in the Western world seeks to control population growth, breakup the traditional family, end nationalism and racism and undermine conservative religions. The ultimate agenda is to lower global population, mix all races and stamp-out nationalism and religion, all to make it easier to control the masses. This is why we see Western powers backing the proliferation of homosexual propaganda around the world through school curriculum, pride parades, same sex marriage legislation, children's shows, books, films, music and celebrities. Needless to say, when it comes to politics, a homosexual today (open or otherwise) will most likely be pro-Western. After all, Washington has become the beacon on the hill homosexuals around the world look up to today -
Western NGOs are cancerous tumors
Throughout history Armenia's internal enemies have always been more destructive than its external enemies. Throughout history Armenians have sought to advance foreign interests inside their homeland. Throughout history the Armenian state has had to fight not only external enemies but also its internal enemies. The following words spoken by Cicero more than two thousands years ago are specially poignant for us Armenians -
A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not traitor, he speaks in the accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their garments, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared." - Cicero, 42 B.C.Two thousand years on, it is no different today. Since we are on the topic of internal threats to the Armenian state, we need to address the role Western NGOs play in Armenia. Not many people know that one of the very first American NGOs was founded in Vanadzor, Armenia in 1994 by none other than the Washington-connected Hovnanian family. Vanadzor incidentally has since become a hotbed of Western activism in recent years. The Hovnanians also introduced into Armenia American style homes and golf, but that's another story. Their lasting legacy will be the introduction of NGOs into a fledgling post-Soviet Armenia. Today, although the situation in Armenia is no way near as bad as the one that existed in Ukraine before its decent into chaos, Armenia nonetheless hosts hundreds of Western funded NGOs. We have come to realize in recent years that these foreign funded organizations pose a very serious threat to the normal development of developing societies like our embattled republic in the south Caucasus. Today, there are hundreds of NGOs championing great number of things and they employ many thousands of people in a small and poor nation like Armenia. While some of these organizations truly benefit society, some, perhaps most, do not. Nevertheless, a majority of these NGOs are Western-funded operations. For example: Caucasus Research Resource Center in Armenia is one of the typical Western funded organizations that have setup shop in the country during the past two decades -
Caucasus Research Resource Center: Donors and Partners: http://www.crrc.am/about/Donors-and-Partners?lang=en
As we saw in places like Serbia, Egypt, Venezuela, Hong Kong and Ukraine in recent times, many of these Western-funded organizations are like cancerous tumors that can metastasize and turn fatal if left unchecked by security services. If Armenia is to develop organically as a nation-state, at least some of these organizations have to be surgically removed regardless of how bloody the operation may be. Ultimately, we Armenians must understand that behind the lofty rhetoric and seemingly humanitarian concerns of some of these NGOs lurks an imperial agenda, an imperial agenda to subvert and destabilize targeted societies that are not in Western pockets or under Western boots.George Soros Meets With Armenian Non-Profits in New York: https://agbu.org/news-item/george-soros-meets-with-armenian-non-profits-in-new-york/
Speaking of toxic organizations in Armenia, USAID (one of Washington's most dangerous weapons of mass destruction around the world) is definitely one of the major ones. USAID has been known to be actively spying on Armenia since the early 1990s when they first invaded the unsuspecting nation. USAID has also been known to have introduced genetically modified foods into the country, and it has long been rumored that USAID has used Armenia as a transit hub for the CIA's global narcotics trade.
An interesting letter said to have been written by USAID's mission director in Armenia appeared on a pro-Russian Facebook page just recently. While I cannot confidently state that the letter in question is genuine (it may very well be a Russian forgery) it does nevertheless accurately portray the master-servant relationship that exists between Western organizations and those retched souls that work for them -
This letter may or may not be genuine. What is not in doubt however is that characters like this Artur Sakunts, and there are many others like him, have been utilized by Western powers to sow political unrest and societal decay in Armenia for decades. As long as these types of characters are allowed to freely operate inside Armenian society, they will continue sowing their poisonous seeds. Once more: The following is a partial list of organizations and individuals that, in my opinion, should be either put under constant surveillance, shutdown, exiled, jailed or outright banned from ever entering Armenia -
Richard Giragosian, Paruyr Hayrikian, Raffi Hovanissian and family, Zaruhi Postanjian, Levon Petrosian, Vartan Oskanian, Andreas Gukasyan, Levon Zurabian, Manvel Sargsian, Shant Voskerichian, Artur Sakunts, Babken DerGrigorian, Shant Arutyunian, Ruben Gevorkyants, Avetik Ishkhanyan, Jirayr Libaridian, Nikol Pashinyan, Yeghia Nersesian, Gayane Abrahamyan, Armen Martirosyan, Hilda Grigoryan, Salpi Ghazarian, Jirayr Sefilian, Edik Baghtasaryan, Arpine Galfayan, Emil Danielyan, Levon Parseghyan, Van Krikorian, Harry Tamrazian, Susanna Muradyan, Hranush Kharatyan, Georgy Vanyan, Igor Muratyan, Jhanna Makhyan, Ara Manoogian, Robert Davidian, Onnik Krikorian, David Grigorian, Arpine Galfayan, Vardges Gaspari, David Sanasaryan, Vahan Martyrosyan, Sassoon Kosian, Hovnanian family, Zaruhi Poghosyan, Lara Aharonian, Nanore Barsumian, Larisa Minasyan, Mamikon Hovsepyan, Naira Hayrumyan, Sona Ayvazyan, Ara Papyan, David Shahnazaryan, Yekaterina Poghosyan, Tigran Khzmalyan, Daniel Ioannisyan, Garo Ghazarian, Garegin Chugaszyan, Liana Aghajanian, Arevik Saribekyan, Anush Sedrakyan, Arman Babajanyan, Tsovinar Nazaryan, Gevorg Safaryan, Karine Aghajanyan, Angel Khachatryan, Alex Yenikomshyan, Alexander Arzumanyan, Eduard Abrahamyan, Boris Navasardyan, Gayane Mkrtchyan, Maro Matossian, Varujan Avetisyan, Marianna Grigoryan, Edgar Khachatryan, Karen Hakobian, Tony Halpin, Anna Nemtsova, John Hughes, Kirk Wallace, Rick Ney, Anton Ivchenko, Blogger Unzipped, Rotary Club of Yerevan, Transparency International Anti-corruption Center, Gala TV, Open Society Foundation Armenia, Armenian Assembly of America, Pink Armenia, Policy Forum Armenia, Armenian Renaissance, ACNIS, Civilitas, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, Peace Dialogue, Armenian Environmental Network, NGO Center of Armenia, Rights and Support Foundation, UIC Armenia, British Council of Armenia, Women’s Support Center, Rights and Support Foundation, Caucasus Research Resource Center Armenia, Institute for Democracy and Human Rights, Founding Parliament (formerly Pre-Parliament), Heritage Party, Radio Liberty, Asparez Journalists' Club, Caucasus Center for Peacemaking Initiative, Women’s Resource Center, Arajinlratvakan, ArmeniaNow, Armenia Today, Aravot, Hetq and Lragir
These
organizations and individuals will
go to great lengths to justify their actions inside Armenia, regardless of how dangerous or irrational they may be, essentially because they are making a name and/or a living for themselves by serving a Western
agenda. Many of them, at least subconsciously, hate their homeland and are ashamed of their ethnic identity.
Quite a few of them are psychologically disturbed or suffer from psycho-sexual disorders like homosexuality and perhaps even pedophilia. And a few among them are
professional agents working directly for Western (perhaps even Turkish) intelligence. Regardless of the reason or motivation behind their service to Western powers, many Armenians
today continue being Armenia's first and foremost problem. Armenian history has taught us that the Armenian state has to be ready to battle not only external enemies but also internal enemies -
Հայ-ռուսական համատեղ մարտավարական զորավարժությունը «Ալագյազ» զորավարժարանում: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1qU3_acLno&list=UU4lSkT4s1RJ8EK4nZ7pPgqA
Ոստիկանության զորավարժությունը Արզնի օդանավակայանի տարածքում (դիտել 4:45-ից): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHgK_kKhAxs
When viewed through the prism of geopolitics, the rhetoric of Washingtonian agents in Armenia become painfully obvious. Behind their humanitarian speeches and patriotic fervor hides the cruel motives of an evil global hegemon. Washington's ultimate problem with Yerevan isn't the lack of "democracy" in Armenia, but rather it's the lack of "America" in Armenia. Therefore, be mindful of the fact that "press freedoms", "human rights", "civil society" and "democratic progress" are essentially code words for allowing Western assets in Armenia a free hand to meddle in the internal affairs of the country and sow social and political discord. The freer a society is the more vulnerable it is to manipulation and exploitation by Western powers. Sadly, more-and-more nations are curbing societal freedoms to shield themselves from Western manipulation and exploitation. It is truly unfortunate that freedoms have to be curtailed to thwart off Western imperial designs. It is truly tragic that human progress is being therefore stunted around the world due to Western machinations. But this is where humanity stands today and this has to be acknowledged. Armenia therefore needs to adopt the Russian model and begin shutting down any Western-funded organization thought to be involved in political meddling.
Neo-Bolsheviks and Western imperialists join hands
Today we have a convergence of interests between two very powerful forces: Neo-Bolsheviks (civil society groups funded by Soros-type leftist entities in the Western world) and traditional Western imperialists. The aforementioned two global powers have joined hands and are currently seeking to topple governments not under Anglo-American-Jewish rule. They have the money. They have the tools. They have the expertise. They have the experience. They have the following. They control the global control board. When they are given the freedom to operate in an targeted country, they waste no time in sowing their seeds of sociopolitical unrest. And keep in mind that George Soros is not the only Western elite engaged in Social Engineering around the world for there are many other private and government sponsored organizations that meddle in nations' domestic matters.
Nevertheless, no talk on Western politics would be complete without also addressing the near total control Jews have over the Western world. After all, everything culturally decadent and politically/financially dangerous about the Western world today can be directly traced to the Western world's Jewish elite - and the societal engineering (i.e. the mental conditioning of the masses) they have subjected western society (first via television programming, cinema and music and later through the school curriculum and legislation) beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While non-Jews in the Western world would not dare speak about this matter in public, Jews themselves are quite proud of their success in transforming the US into the cultural cesspool that it has become -
The Western world has become a test-tube for Jewish societal engineers and a playground for the Jewish elite. In a nutshell: Virtually all American politicians - both Democrat and Republican - eat from Jewish hands. Which is why I say: You may think you are on the left, you may think you are on the right, the reality of the matter however is that you are on 'their' side regardless of what side you think you are on. Jewish money finances both sides of the political spectrum in the US. They do this to essentially have a firm footing in any given political discourse. The US has thus become a showcase for Jews on the left and Jews on the right - and those in the middle getting screwed is the average American as well as America's reputation around the world. Much of what the world hates and/or fears about America today - be it its Ultraliberalism or its Neoconservatism - can be traced to American Judaism. Although Jews and their "Bible Belt" Shabbos Goyim known as "Christian Zionists" represent America's warmongering right, Jews are much more prolific and active in America's degenerate left. We can see this unique dynamic sometimes when Jews air their dirty laundry. While Jewish support of the political right is confined primarily to collaborating with the country's White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestants (WASPs), their support of the ultra-liberal left is massive in scope. A massive amount of Jewish money is spent to promoting liberal/leftist ideology not just in the US but all around the world. The Western world's Neo-Bolshevik tentacles are truly far reaching. If you can think of an agenda that these modern day Bolsheviks deem worthwhile, you will get funding for it.Douglas Rushkoff: The thing that makes judaism dangerous: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGt7_0GEOvo&noredirect=1
In short: There is a lot of money being allocated for all kinds of agendas conjured up in many boardrooms across the Western world. This is how they promote their Globalist ideas on sexuality, governance,
multiculturalism, immigration, pollution, food production, human rights, population
control, public health, global warming, vaccinations, etc. There are of
course also more sinister agendas that specifically target nations that
the Western establishment deems strategically important for one reason or another. Therefore, the Western world's left and the right often join hands in trying to foment political unrest in targeted societies. We have seen this process play out against nations such as Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina, Russia, Serbia, Greece, Georgia, Ukraine, Libya, Tunisia, Syria, Egypt, China and Armenia, to name a few.
Armenia needs to develop closer, more efficient relations with the Russian Bear. The basis for this can be political (i.e. combating regional threats), economic (i.e. flourishing of bilateral trade) or cultural (Christian Orthodoxy heritage and conservative societal values). Speaking of Christianity and societal conservatism and how it can impact international relations, let's take a look at German Sterligov. German Sterligov is a Russian billionaire who some years ago traded in his luxury cars, yachts and mansions for a horse, a rifle and a farm. Now, German has made yet another sensational move: He has temporarily moved to Artsakh with his family.
In fact, the Sterligovs’ are the embodiment of the ideal family:
Christian Orthodox, patriotic, hard working, innovative, traditional and ecologically conscious. It is
people like this we Armenians should be celebrating and turning into role
models, not Westernized whores from the US. As mentioned above, the Sterligov's presence on Armenian soil underscores the great importance of Armenian lobbying efforts in
Russia, be it by officials, be it by civilians. It also shows the
important role of shared cultural values between our two
historically allied peoples, shared values such as Christianity, genuine
patriotism (i.e. attachment to the soil) and the world's oldest and
most successful institution, the traditional family.
I'd like to see the arrival of more German Sterligovs in Armenia, even if they come in the form of bikers. Likewise, I would also like to see Russians get a bit more proactive inside Armenian society. I say this because Moscow is also guilty of allowing Armenia to turn into a Western playground during the past two decades. Russians officials cannot continue thinking that by merely dealing with top level leaders in Armenia or controlling the nation's infrastructure they will have no worries in the country. Moscow's negligence and old world tactics has allowed Western interests to set roots deep within Armenian society. Moscow needs to step into the modern world and recognize the paramount importance of Public Relations, Societal Engineering and, more importantly, Soft Power.
Armenia can no longer
afford playing host to a host of Western operatives seeking to use Armenia's natural growing pains to foment political unrest in the country and undermine
Yerevan's ties to
Moscow. Armenia can no longer afford to allow Westernization and Globalism (modern forms
of Bolshevism) to corrupt its national identity. Armenia can no longer
allow "Democracy" to weaken the
Armenian state by empowering those on the fringes of Armenian society. I reiterate: Armenia needs to follow Russia's footsteps and begin shutting down Western-funded organizations in the country.
Armenia needs to develop closer relations with the Russian Bear
Armenia needs to develop closer, more efficient relations with the Russian Bear. The basis for this can be political (i.e. combating regional threats), economic (i.e. flourishing of bilateral trade) or cultural (Christian Orthodoxy heritage and conservative societal values). Speaking of Christianity and societal conservatism and how it can impact international relations, let's take a look at German Sterligov. German Sterligov is a Russian billionaire who some years ago traded in his luxury cars, yachts and mansions for a horse, a rifle and a farm. Now, German has made yet another sensational move: He has temporarily moved to Artsakh with his family.
I'm not yet convinced he had to flee from problems at home. If he wanted to protect himself and his family from "threats" at home he could have gone into hiding in Russia itself. Russia is so vast there are places in the country where even the FSB would not be able to find him. Moreover, if he really felt threatened by anything or anyone, he would not be openly riding around Artskah on his brand new donkey and horse. If he really wanted to hide himself from threats, he would not be proudly advertising his intention of opening a water mill, a winery, producing and exporting organic foods to Russia and helping his wife open up a fashion studio and a clothing production line on Shushi. To be honest, I really don't care why the Sterligovs have suddenly arrived in Artsakh. I am simply happy they are there, and I would be even happier if they settle there permanently and have their children marry Armenians. The presence of these people on Armenian soil can only be positive for this is an iconic family -Why The Sterligov Family Has Settled in Artsakh: http://asbarez.com/137649/why-the-sterligov-family-has-settled-in-artsakh/German Sterligov To Start Eco-Friendly Food Production in Nagorno-Karabakh: http://asbarez.com/137672/german-sterligov-to-start-eco-friendly-food-production-in-nagorno-karabakh/
I'd like to see the arrival of more German Sterligovs in Armenia, even if they come in the form of bikers. Likewise, I would also like to see Russians get a bit more proactive inside Armenian society. I say this because Moscow is also guilty of allowing Armenia to turn into a Western playground during the past two decades. Russians officials cannot continue thinking that by merely dealing with top level leaders in Armenia or controlling the nation's infrastructure they will have no worries in the country. Moscow's negligence and old world tactics has allowed Western interests to set roots deep within Armenian society. Moscow needs to step into the modern world and recognize the paramount importance of Public Relations, Societal Engineering and, more importantly, Soft Power.
Speaking of Russian soft power, recent news that Permyakov will be tried by an Armenian court is an unmistakable sign that Moscow is beginning to understand the volatility of the situation in Armenia and the crucial importance of public relations. I should add here that the Russian decision to hand the murderer in question over to the Armenian side was a result of Armenian law enforcement officials working with their Russians counterparts. Another recent example of Russian soft power was the announcement that Moscow is extending a "soft loan" to Yerevan for the equivalent of 200 million dollars. The money will be specifically earmarked for the modernization of Armenia's armed forces. When one takes into account that Armenia purchases its military equipment from Russia at factory prices, it becomes apparent that the 200 million dollars is in fact the equivalent of Baku's billion dollar weapons purchases. And in an even more important development, one that clearly suggests that Russians are beginning to value Armenia's geostrategic importance, was the recent news report from Russia that Armenia may soon be supplied with one of the most fearsome, non-nuclear (yet nuclear capable) weapons systems on earth -
Russia In Talks To Supply Armenia With Iskander-M Missiles As Battle Lines Drawn Across Europe: http://www.ibtimes.com/russia-talks-supply-armenia-iskander-m-missiles-battle-lines-drawn-across-europe-1994731
With the Iskander ballistic missile system, the Armenian military would be capable of destroying virtually any target within Azerbaijan with pinpoint accuracy and their S-300 missile defense systems would not be able to intercept it. This is astounding news and militarily speaking this is a potential game changer in the south Caucasus. I'm extremely satisfied that in its effort to keep NATO out of the south Caucasus region Moscow has gradually begun turning Armenia into an impregnable fortress. Armenia's
geopolitical stature has risen significantly in recent years as a result.
And with its membership in the EEU and its recently granted observer status in the SCO, Armenia also stands poised to become a major regional trade hub. All that is now left for Armenia to do is to somehow secure some form of unhindered land access to the Russian Federation (via Georgia and/or Azerbaijan) and the post-Soviet nightmare will be over. And speaking of a land link between Russia and Armenia, the gap has already shrunk by about a mile in recent days -
Georgia: Russia Occupies BP Oil Pipeline: http://www.eurasianet.org/node/74201
One way or another Georgia will be brought back under the Russian orbit, it's only a matter of time. Armenia will then have a secure and stable northern border through which it can trade with Russia freely and efficiently. Nevertheless, as
much as I hate to say it, and I know many of my readers will disagree
with me, when it comes to protecting Armenia from regional predators, I
have more trust in Russian officials than I do in Armenians. Why do I say this? Until
the Armenian nation begins giving birth to capable nationalistic leaders with
vision, wisdom, courage and political acumen and a populace that stands-by its
leadership unconditionally, I will continue looking north
for Armenia's salvation. As long
as Armenians are not rallying behind their state unconditionally, at least on the
international stage and with matters pertaining to national defense, Armenia will forever
be looked upon as vulnerable and will thus be subjected to foreign manipulation. As long as we Armenians continue tolerating a fifth column that is always ready to
attack
the Armenian leadership at any given opportunity, the international
community will continue looking down at
Armenia, Western powers will continue funding subversive activities
in Armenia and Moscow will continue holding Armenia on a very short
leash. And speaking of why Russians keep Armenia on a short leash: In the following video link we see the views of a well known Russian parliamentarian about Armenia -
I would disagree with the way Evgeny Fedorov characterizes the current demonstrations in Yerevan. But I
would agree that Armenia is playing a very dangerous game today by maintaining close ties with the political West. By playing both sides, Armenians think they are being smart, clever, shrewd, etc. I think Armenians need to put aside their empty bravado and understand that Western powers are the undisputed global masters of political and financial manipulation. You don't play them, they play you. I
should also add that all of the flaws that currently exists within
Russian-Armenian relations as well as the reason why Armenia is incapable of fully exploiting its historic alliance with the Russian Bear can be directly traced to Armenia's so-called "complimentary politics", its desire to maintain
close ties with the political West as well as Russia. Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, Yerevan's burning desire to flirt with Western powers is giving Western mercenaries a dangerous foothold inside Armenian society. Yerevan is therefore playing a very dangerous game, during a very dangerous time, in a very dangerous environment.We would be lucky if all this does not seriously backfire on Armenia one day.
Although I don't agree with some of what Evgeny Fedorov is saying about the current demonstrations in Yerevan, I'm glad that he is saying it nonetheless. I am glad Russians are raising the alarm. But I would have been gladder if they got more directly involved inside Armenia. Armenia needs more Russian involvement because the vacuum the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union created in Armenia in the early 1990s was filled by Western influences. Although its situation not nearly as bad as the one that exists in the Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia or Greece, Armenia is still dangerously exposed to Western manipulation and exploitation. It's high time to buffer the toxicity of Armenia's Westernization with better, closer, more efficient relations with the Russian Bear.
One of our main national tasks today is to resist the lure of the Western lifestyle - and Western financing - and not allow Western operatives to comfortably settle inside Armenian society. Westernization of Armenia, with all that it entails, poses an existential threat to the fledgling nation. Therefore, all those in Armenia that maintain ties with the Western alliance, in any capacity and regardless of who they may be, should be placed under state surveillance by an Armenian government that is not beholden to Western interests. Moreover, Armenians that actively promote Western agendas in the country need to be jailed or banned from entering the country. Ultimately, however, we must also understand that Armenia simply does not have the proper resources, the strength, the expertise or the experience to effectively counter Western machinations on its own. Therefore, when it comes to safeguarding Armenia against Western manipulation and exploitation, the only remedy Armenians have is closer relations with the Russian Bear. I hope to see Russians start taking Armenia more seriously and begin making a concerted effort in playing a bigger role inside Armenian society.
Going back to the topic of demonstrations in Armenia: Clearly, many observers, including Russians, thought Armenia was going through a color revolution. The reality however was that there was no color revolution taking place in Armenia. It's normal and expected for foreigners to misjudge/misrepresent what has been going on here in Armenia. But this should not be the same with Russians. What's troubling for me is that when the demonstrations reached their height in late June-early July, Moscow seemed caught off guard and clearly panicked. I'm not concerned that Moscow panicked per se, for it is a sign that Russians officials are taking Armenia seriously. I am rather concerned that Moscow panicked - because it still does not have a good handle on the situation inside Armenia. Moscow panicked because it was not sure of what was going on in the country. That is a very troubling sign for me.
I am concerned because Moscow still seems to be on the outside looking in as Western operatives (from Western backed politicians to Western funded news sites) are on the inside causing trouble. I have said this many times before: Russians are for the most part continuing to do things the old fashioned way: They are controlling Armenia from the top down, whereas Western interests are controlling Armenia from the bottom up. This is causing a situation where the top and the bottom in the country are going in different directions. If Russians don't wake up and recognize the immense value of soft power and PR, there WILL eventually be a Western instigated revolution in Armenia because Western assets are firmly embedded throughout Armenian society.
Surveys/polls where Armenians express pro-Russian sentiments are generally misleading. Generally speaking, Russians are looked upon by Armenians as a necessary inconvenience and Armenians are always quick to blame Russians for Armenia's problems, whereas the Western world is dreamed about. In other words, Armenians want military relations with Russia but they enthusiastically seek financial, economic and cultural relations with the West. For Armenians the West is an fancy amusement park. The fundamental problem here is that amusement parks are always more interesting for the sheeple and that includes government officials. In the absence of spirituality and ideological movements today, humans simply want to be entertained and titillated. The West certainly entertains and titillates. Humans today are gradually devolving into mindless consumers. Without God, family and country (i.e. without a clear direction in life) humans are animals simply concerned with survival and self-gratification. This is what we get when God, family and county is killed through 70 years of Globalization, Westernization and Americanization (i.e. Anglo-American-Jewish social engineering).
Westernization amongst the youth in Armenia has taken deep root. Most young Armenians today (at least in Yerevan) yearn to learn English, live in Western lands and consume Western pop culture. There is a clear deficit of genuine patriotism, political foresight and the proper understanding of the world in general in Armenian society. I do not have much hope that we Armenians will by ourselves be able to keep Western interests indefinitely contained because we Armenians generally speaking, even the anti-Western amongst us, have a deep attraction and appreciation for the Western life style. In my opinion, if there are no fundamental changes in the way Armenian officials handle cultural and sociopolitical matters, time may make things worst.
Most Armenians today, even pro-Russian ones, do not see anything wrong with Armenia's youth embracing Western pop culture. This in my opinion is a formula for disaster. We must be wise enough to realize that Western political interests follow closely behind Western pop culture. Think of it this way: Western pop culture (with all that it entails) are the main battle tanks and Western activists are Panzergrenadiers (soldiers who follow close behind tanks). The tanks penetrate defensive lines (national cultural boundaries), the Panzergrenadiers do the footwork on the ground to finish off the enemy.
I reiterate: Their grip over humanity is unprecedented. Their grip over humanity is cultural and psychological. It is we the sheeple that give them their power over us. If we want to speak their language, earn their money, live in their lands, learn in their schools, sing their songs, watch their films, eat their foods, wear their clothing - they have already won half the battle. If we are so eager to be like them, how would we ever think of them as our enemy? If we are so open to their cultural values and their way of life, they will easily infiltrate our society and usurp our nation.
Ultimately, our attraction and appreciation for all things Western keeps us - even the pro-Russian ones among us - vulnerable to Western manipulation and psychological conditioning. In my opinion, this deep love and appreciation for all things Western also lies at the root of Yerevan's complimentary politics. Simply put: Armenians don't' want to lose access to their Western bank accounts, shopping in Paris or purchasing their Bentleys merely for the sake of Russia. Yerevan's complimentary politics has nothing to do with Armenia's defense because Armenians know very well that Western powers are comfortably in bed with Armenia's enemies and that Western powers will not come to Armenia's aid in times of war. Nevertheless, this prevailing situation is allowing Western powers to saturate Armenia with Western propaganda, Western money, Western activists, Western NGOs and Western "values". Although things are currently under control in Armenia, the potential for future problems continues to exist in the country.
Armenia - the 100th coup. Evgeny Fedorov: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOLZdLzy7ok
Although I don't agree with some of what Evgeny Fedorov is saying about the current demonstrations in Yerevan, I'm glad that he is saying it nonetheless. I am glad Russians are raising the alarm. But I would have been gladder if they got more directly involved inside Armenia. Armenia needs more Russian involvement because the vacuum the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union created in Armenia in the early 1990s was filled by Western influences. Although its situation not nearly as bad as the one that exists in the Ukraine, Serbia, Georgia or Greece, Armenia is still dangerously exposed to Western manipulation and exploitation. It's high time to buffer the toxicity of Armenia's Westernization with better, closer, more efficient relations with the Russian Bear.
One of our main national tasks today is to resist the lure of the Western lifestyle - and Western financing - and not allow Western operatives to comfortably settle inside Armenian society. Westernization of Armenia, with all that it entails, poses an existential threat to the fledgling nation. Therefore, all those in Armenia that maintain ties with the Western alliance, in any capacity and regardless of who they may be, should be placed under state surveillance by an Armenian government that is not beholden to Western interests. Moreover, Armenians that actively promote Western agendas in the country need to be jailed or banned from entering the country. Ultimately, however, we must also understand that Armenia simply does not have the proper resources, the strength, the expertise or the experience to effectively counter Western machinations on its own. Therefore, when it comes to safeguarding Armenia against Western manipulation and exploitation, the only remedy Armenians have is closer relations with the Russian Bear. I hope to see Russians start taking Armenia more seriously and begin making a concerted effort in playing a bigger role inside Armenian society.
Going back to the topic of demonstrations in Armenia: Clearly, many observers, including Russians, thought Armenia was going through a color revolution. The reality however was that there was no color revolution taking place in Armenia. It's normal and expected for foreigners to misjudge/misrepresent what has been going on here in Armenia. But this should not be the same with Russians. What's troubling for me is that when the demonstrations reached their height in late June-early July, Moscow seemed caught off guard and clearly panicked. I'm not concerned that Moscow panicked per se, for it is a sign that Russians officials are taking Armenia seriously. I am rather concerned that Moscow panicked - because it still does not have a good handle on the situation inside Armenia. Moscow panicked because it was not sure of what was going on in the country. That is a very troubling sign for me.
I am concerned because Moscow still seems to be on the outside looking in as Western operatives (from Western backed politicians to Western funded news sites) are on the inside causing trouble. I have said this many times before: Russians are for the most part continuing to do things the old fashioned way: They are controlling Armenia from the top down, whereas Western interests are controlling Armenia from the bottom up. This is causing a situation where the top and the bottom in the country are going in different directions. If Russians don't wake up and recognize the immense value of soft power and PR, there WILL eventually be a Western instigated revolution in Armenia because Western assets are firmly embedded throughout Armenian society.
Surveys/polls where Armenians express pro-Russian sentiments are generally misleading. Generally speaking, Russians are looked upon by Armenians as a necessary inconvenience and Armenians are always quick to blame Russians for Armenia's problems, whereas the Western world is dreamed about. In other words, Armenians want military relations with Russia but they enthusiastically seek financial, economic and cultural relations with the West. For Armenians the West is an fancy amusement park. The fundamental problem here is that amusement parks are always more interesting for the sheeple and that includes government officials. In the absence of spirituality and ideological movements today, humans simply want to be entertained and titillated. The West certainly entertains and titillates. Humans today are gradually devolving into mindless consumers. Without God, family and country (i.e. without a clear direction in life) humans are animals simply concerned with survival and self-gratification. This is what we get when God, family and county is killed through 70 years of Globalization, Westernization and Americanization (i.e. Anglo-American-Jewish social engineering).
Westernization amongst the youth in Armenia has taken deep root. Most young Armenians today (at least in Yerevan) yearn to learn English, live in Western lands and consume Western pop culture. There is a clear deficit of genuine patriotism, political foresight and the proper understanding of the world in general in Armenian society. I do not have much hope that we Armenians will by ourselves be able to keep Western interests indefinitely contained because we Armenians generally speaking, even the anti-Western amongst us, have a deep attraction and appreciation for the Western life style. In my opinion, if there are no fundamental changes in the way Armenian officials handle cultural and sociopolitical matters, time may make things worst.
Most Armenians today, even pro-Russian ones, do not see anything wrong with Armenia's youth embracing Western pop culture. This in my opinion is a formula for disaster. We must be wise enough to realize that Western political interests follow closely behind Western pop culture. Think of it this way: Western pop culture (with all that it entails) are the main battle tanks and Western activists are Panzergrenadiers (soldiers who follow close behind tanks). The tanks penetrate defensive lines (national cultural boundaries), the Panzergrenadiers do the footwork on the ground to finish off the enemy.
I reiterate: Their grip over humanity is unprecedented. Their grip over humanity is cultural and psychological. It is we the sheeple that give them their power over us. If we want to speak their language, earn their money, live in their lands, learn in their schools, sing their songs, watch their films, eat their foods, wear their clothing - they have already won half the battle. If we are so eager to be like them, how would we ever think of them as our enemy? If we are so open to their cultural values and their way of life, they will easily infiltrate our society and usurp our nation.
Ultimately, our attraction and appreciation for all things Western keeps us - even the pro-Russian ones among us - vulnerable to Western manipulation and psychological conditioning. In my opinion, this deep love and appreciation for all things Western also lies at the root of Yerevan's complimentary politics. Simply put: Armenians don't' want to lose access to their Western bank accounts, shopping in Paris or purchasing their Bentleys merely for the sake of Russia. Yerevan's complimentary politics has nothing to do with Armenia's defense because Armenians know very well that Western powers are comfortably in bed with Armenia's enemies and that Western powers will not come to Armenia's aid in times of war. Nevertheless, this prevailing situation is allowing Western powers to saturate Armenia with Western propaganda, Western money, Western activists, Western NGOs and Western "values". Although things are currently under control in Armenia, the potential for future problems continues to exist in the country.
June, 2015
***
Russia warns against 'color revolution' in Armenia
Russia warns against 'color revolution' in Armenia
In a veiled warning to the West, Russia cautioned Thursday against any attempt to spark a new "color revolution" in Armenia by exploiting protests against electricity prices for political ends. Large crowds of mostly young people have been protesting in the Armenian capital Yerevan for more than 10 days, demanding the government scrap plans to raise the price of electricity for households. Russia
has been wary of unrest on its borders since governments fell in
Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution, Ukraine's 2003-04 Orange Revolution and
Kiev's 2014 Maidan protests - events in which it says the West backed the protesters.
"You know how the 'color revolutions', and the Maidan in Ukraine, started," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a BRICS Youth Summit gathering of young people from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) in Moscow. "The current developments in Armenia
- there is also a temptation among many to use them to whip up
anti-government sentiment although the root of these events is purely
economic," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. "It seems useful for someone to go further and develop these processes in a political way." Lavrov
said that the West in particular was paying increasing attention to the
role of young people in shaping national agendas, including through
"peaceful protest."
His comments were the closest any senior
Russian official has come to suggesting the West may have or be seeking a
role in the protest in Armenia, which hosts a Russian military base, to
pull it further out of Moscow's orbit. Thousands of protesters have been gathering every evening in Yerevan
though their numbers dwindle during the day. Police tried to disperse
them with water cannon early last week but the protest continued and has
been peaceful since then. The protesters have ignored concessions
offered by President Serzh Sargsyan, saying they want the price rise of
up to 22 percent planned by the distribution company, a subsidiary of
Russian firm Inter RAO, to be scrapped entirely. The protesters
have avoided chanting anti-government slogans, saying their demands are
limited to the electricity price dispute, though many also complain
about alleged corruption in Armenia.
"I think the process of these protests is largely over - or if not over, heading that way," Armenian political analyst Alexander Iskandaryan told Reuters in Yerevan. But Russian leaders fear unrest in neighboring states could encourage protests in Russia and President Vladimir Putin said last year that Moscow "should do everything necessary" to prevent such a "color revolution" in Russia. Armenia,
in the southern Caucasus, was once part of the Soviet Union and its 3.2
million people have been hit hard by an economic downturn in Russia,
its main ally and trading partner. It is also part of the Eurasian Economic Union, a political and economic bloc set up by Moscow to try to match the economic strength of the European Union, China and the United States. The Kremlin has said it is up to Armenia's government and the protesters to resolve the dispute themselves.
Bloomberg: Kremlin Fears a Revolution in
Armenia
The events of the past five days in Armenia can be followed on Twitter under the hashtag #ElectricYerevan,
but they aren't on the front pages of global newspapers. The world
doesn't get excited about protests over an increase in electricity
prices in a country of 3 million, tucked into a beautiful but
resource-poor corner of South Caucasus. The demonstrations in Armenia
are watched closely in Moscow and Kiev, however, because they reflect
unusually intense dissatisfaction with Russian power in a post-Soviet
nation that had seemed to be securely in the Kremlin's grip.
It
all started last month when the country's energy monopoly, Electric
Networks of Armenia, asked the government to raise electricity tariffs
by 40.8 percent. The utility complained that Armenian hydroelectric
plants were producing less energy, and that repairs at the country's
sole nuclear power plant were taking longer than planned, causing the
company to go into debt to the tune of $250 million -- a huge sum in a
country with a gross domestic product of just $10 billion -- and fall
out of favor with Armenian banks.
The government initially resisted, arguing that the losses had been caused by graft.
The public utility regulatory commission established, for example, that
ENA had been overpaying suppliers and contractors (charges that the
company denies).
But on June 17 the commission caved, raising tariffs by 16.7 percent
starting in August to avoid outages. Two days later, activists staged
the first relatively small sit-in in the center of Yerevan, Armenia's
capital. Then the protests grew. Tuesday, police used water cannons to
disperse the demonstrators, and arrested 250 people. About 1,000
protesters stayed through the night, though, and they were marching
again Wednesday morning.
All this would have little significance
outside Armenia if ENA weren't fully owned by Inter RAO UES, a large
Russian energy company whose board chairman is Igor Sechin, a close
friend of President Vladimir Putin and chief executive of state oil
giant Rosneft. So the protests against the company's allegedly corrupt
management are, by default, anti-Moscow, if not anti-Russia.
The
Kremlin is highly aware of this. "Armenia is our closest partner, we are
united by historical ties with Armenia and the Armenian people,"
Putin's press secretary Dmitri Peskov said Tuesday.
"Of course we are watching what's going on there very closely." That
may sound tame, but in Armenia it was a thunderclap. "The very fact that
that the Russian presidential press secretary commented on the events
in Yerevan," commentator Musa Mikaelyan wrote on
the news site 1in.am, "is evidence that either Russia is taking part in
the events unfolding in Yerevan, or it is very worried and trying to
take part, or is expressing readiness to participate if events get out
of control."
Moscow's worry is that the uprising in Ukraine
started in the same way: with quiet grumbling, small rallies and a
singalong. Then police used excessive force, and the protests escalated
so that, in less than two months, downtown Kiev was burning, and soon
President Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia. Many Ukrainians, proud of
having broken Russia's hold on their country, would like to see this
repeated in Yerevan. Liga.net, one of Ukraine's most popular sites, is covering the
"Electric Yerevan" protests as a new "Maidan," the common name for the
Kiev uprising. Ukrainian Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, an ethnic
Armenian, encouraged the Yerevan demonstrators with a Facebook post recalling
the romanticism of the Ukrainians' struggle. "My dear Armenia," it
started. "There was a day when we were beaten up and dispersed, and our
barricades were cleared from Krepostnoy Lane in Kiev. It seemed our
hopes had been trampled." Yet, Avakov concluded optimistically,
Ukrainians' "will for freedom" prevailed.
This support from Kiev
tells Putin's allies in Moscow that what's going on in Yerevan is no
mere economic protest. "I'm sure there are plenty of militants from
Ukraine and there is an outside coordination center run by the same
political operators who ran the Maidan in Kiev," Russian political scientist Sergei Markov wrote on
Facebook. "There can be no doubt that this is no spontaneous outpouring
of popular protest in Yerevan. It's all a matter of technology and the
organizers' main goal is to incite bloodshed."
According to
Markov, the Yerevan disturbances are the response of a sinister Western
cabal to Armenia's 2013 decision to opt out of a trade and association
agreement with the European Union and instead join Putin's Eurasian
Union. But it's not as if Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan had much
choice in that matter: Apart from its energy stranglehold on the tiny
nation, Russia has a military base in its second city, Gyumri, where
5,000 soldiers serve as a warning to neighboring Azerbaijan that
resuming hostilities over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region might not
be a good idea.
Russia has been playing both sides in
that frozen conflict -- the most rarely mentioned one of the five that
help Russia control its post-Soviet neighborhood -- since the early
1990s, lately using it as leverage to pull both Armenia and Azerbaijan
into the Eurasian Union. Although both countries are part of the EU's
Eastern Partnership program, Moscow is determined to prevent that loose
association from turning into anything more meaningful.
The
balance in this region is, if anything, more delicate than it was in
Ukraine at the time of Yanukovych's ouster. Perhaps this is why there's
less anti-Moscow sentiment in Armenia and even in the huge Armenian
diaspora, which by far exceeds the country's population. Serj Tankian, a
singer with the Grammy-nominated California band System of a Down, has
been posting on
Facebook about the electricity demonstrations, but even though he's
clearly sympathetic toward the protesters and would like Armenia to nationalize "monopolistic foreign-owned utility companies," he has studiously avoided making anti-Putin remarks.
So
#ElectricYerevan is no Ukrainian-style revolution yet, and it's not
likely to turn into one. Yet it gives Putin's paranoid regime another
reason to rattle its weapons. It would have done better to deal with
corruption inside the companies it uses to exert influence in its former
empire. Moscow is unable to do that, however, because corruption is one
of its main exports. It can only fight the symptoms, which often
include popular discontent, as though they were part of a global
conspiracy.
Source:http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-06-24/kremlin-fears-a-revolution-in-armenia?cmpid=yhoo
Sergei Markedonov: What Armenians are protesting (and what they’re not)
Last night, some 6,000 people marched towards President Serzh
Sargsyan's residence in Yerevan. Water cannons against protesters have
been used against participants in what has already been dubbed 'Electric
Yerevan' in reference to the cause of the protests: rising energy
prices. Tuesday's initial mass protest against hikes in
electricity tariffs, and the authorities' reaction against them, have
had a noticeable effect on the country’s political situation. According
to the Armenian police, 237 people were arrested on 23 June and, in
total, 29 people suffered injuries, including 11 police officers. But
while this situation has already begun to provoke comparisons with
recent events in Ukraine, these protests have a domestic trajectory
which should not be ignored.
Why are Armenians protesting?
Why are Armenians protesting?
On 17 June, 2015, Armenia's Commission on Regulating Civic Services examined a document from Electricity Networks of Armenia (the ENA, which owns and manages the country's national grid). This company is part of Inter RAO, a large energy holding company based in Moscow. According to the Armenian police, 237 people were arrested. In total, 29 people suffered injuries, including 11 police officers. Though it is a publicly traded company, Inter RAO is often seen across the post-Soviet space as an instrument of Russian energy politics (critics of the Russian Federation go as far as calling it a tool of 'Russian energy imperialism').
Thus, many internal political
decisions in Armenia are seen (or can be seen) in light of this
relationship, even if Moscow itself does not directly influence concrete
administrative decisions in Yerevan. ENA is thus extremely important
for Moscow-Yerevan relations and, of course, how Armenian society
perceives them. ENA petitioned for a 16% rise in
electricity tariffs, and this rise was due to come into force on the
first day of August. The Commission's decision was the immediate cause
for the public’s dissatisfaction. Two days later, a sit-in started in
central Yerevan, where protesters shouted simple slogans, such as 'No to
theft!'.
After the protesters' demands were left
unaddressed, they marched towards Baghramyan Avenue, the centre of
Armenia's central state apparatus. It was these demonstrations that
resulted in clashes with police. The
authorities have their own reasons for being so heavy-handed. The
paralysis of state institutions is fraught with dangerous consequences.
And there are those among the protesters who would like to use this mass
protest for their own political gain. However, the authorities' actions
in June 2015 look more like the temporary treatment of a symptom rather
than a systematic treatment of a far deeper illness.
These protests are the latest, not the first
These protests are the latest, not the first
It would be hard to say that protest demonstrations here in Armenia were unexpected. This is not the first time public dissatisfaction with the authorities (and not just the ever-loathed 'bureaucracy', but the current administration in particular) has been manifested. People have had many grounds to come out on the streets. The economy languishes. Remittances from workers abroad make up a large chunk of the economy. Citizens differ on the best way to provide security to the country against hostile neighbours.
It would be hard to say that protest demonstrations here in Armenia were unexpected. During the 2013 presidential election, when Serzh Sargsyan faced little political competition and many political heavyweights ‘refused’ to participate, Raffi Hovannisian, an ex-foreign minister and leader of the Heritage party, took 36% of the vote. Hovannisian is not known for his electoral successes, and Heritage, a liberal democratic party with traditional leanings, holds only four seats in the Armenian parliament.
Hovannisian's
'success' was the result of a protest vote, pure and simple. Electors
voted for Hovannisian because, for various and different reasons, they
were unhappy with the current authorities. Indeed, the result was less a
vote for Hovannisian, than one against Sargsyan. The fact that the
Heritage leader didn't manage to convert this success at the subsequent
elections to the Council of Elders (the highest organ of self-government
in Yerevan) is an indication of Hovannisian's poor leadership, as well
as the authorities' ability to counter the opposition. But these factors
did not quell the existing social problems and dissatisfaction.
Later
that year, in November 2013, there were clashes between police and
participants of a so-called Million Mask March, when anti-establishment
protesters gather in cities all over the world. Of course, there weren't
a million people in masks in central Yerevan. And the demonstration
didn't receive mass support: the protest attracted roughly 100 people.
However, 20 people were arrested, 38 were detained and 9 – hospitalised.
The clashes were also marked by the use of Molotov cocktails and smoke
grenades.
Eurasian integration was seen by many as a route to higher tariffs and cuts to government services.
The
most notable thing about the protest was its reception: after the smoke
cleared and the fires doused, Shant Aruntyunyan, leader of the
nationalist Tseghakron party, called it a 'revolution.' Back
then, many Russian journalists (just like today), turned to a
'comparative' lens in order to understand this 'Yerevan Maidan'. And
although the protest didn't led to any significant results, November
2013 did reflect Armenian society's disposition to protest and activism. Likewise, Vladimir Putin's visit to Armenia in December 2013
also provoked demonstrations. And although protesters made the Russian
leader a target of their criticism and what the protesters saw as his
attempts to 'drag' the republic into the Customs Union, domestic
circumstances also played a role. Many people saw Eurasian
integration not as another guarantee of Armenia’s security, but also as
a route to higher tariffs and cuts to government services.
The danger of lazy analogies
The danger of lazy analogies
Since the beginning of Kyiv's 'EuroMaidan' in November 2013, which led to a change of government, triggered a European crisis and caused the most serious confrontation between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War, most opposition activity in the post-Soviet space is viewed through a 'Ukrainian lens'.
In addition to causing
lazy analogies between different political situations, this approach
shifts the domestic political agenda in any given country to the
background. Instead, domestic politics is made a sacrifice to
'geopolitical determinism', according to which any crisis in former
Soviet territories are merely a reflection of the 'proxy war' between
America and Russia. Since the
beginning of the 'EuroMaidan' , most opposition activity in the
post-Soviet space is viewed through a 'Ukrainian lens'.
Thus,
an otherwise obvious point disappears from view: political crisis is
not a virus. Of course, judging by purely external signs, you could
unite the events of the Arab Spring, the 2003 Rose Revolution in
Georgia, two Maidans in Ukraine, and two changes of power in Kyrgyzstan
into a single whole. But this obscures fundamental
differences. When talking about Egypt or Tunisia, the issues of Kurds or
Alawites don’t figure, and in the case of Syria, no one talks about the
merits of ‘strategic partnership with the West’ like they do in
Ukraine.
Prior to 2003, Georgia had already
experienced two ethnopolitical conflicts in Abkhazia and South Ossetia
(and received two de-facto states on its territory in return); before
the 'second Maidan', Kyiv didn't see Crimea or Donbas as potential
points of conflict. The armed conflict in Ukraine's east is just one of
the consequences of a revolutionary change of power in the country. Just
as post-revolutionary Georgia intensified its struggle for territorial
unity, making it the cornerstone of its domestic politics and foreign
policy, so did Ukraine encounter a similar problem after EuroMaidan.
Clearly,
no country exists in a vacuum. Countries are of interest both to their
strategic allies and partners, and to their opponents and competitors.
Here, both groups try to influence what is happening in any given
country, and extract maximum profit for oneself in the process. But
whatever interests external forces might pursue, there have to be
certain 'domestic' pre-conditions for social protest and political
crisis. And they are present in Armenia.
So, before
we apply the Ukrainian lens to Armenian reality, forecasting a 'change
in Yerevan's geopolitical vector', we should pay closer attention to
domestic political dynamics in this small Caucasian republic. Not least
of all because Russia considers Armenia to be a strategic partner.
In
contrast to Ukraine, in Armenia today the authorities and opposition
are not squaring off against one another on the basis of their attitude
to Russia. This issue is not a fundamental part of their conflict. Even
today, you can easily find people in the Armenian bureaucracy who are
sceptical about Eurasian integration. And you can easily find supporters
of deeper ties to Moscow among the opposition. Just take a look at
statements by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, leader of the Armenian National
Congress, which ultimately boil down to this: Putin is not our opponent,
the current government is.
You can easily find supporters of deeper ties to Moscow among the opposition.
Thus,
Moscow should not yield to its emotions, should not look for spectres
of the Maidan where they don't exist, and try to build co-operation with
people from across the political spectrum of Armenia. Dissatisfaction
with tariffs today is still far from dissatisfaction with Moscow. But under certain conditions, this 'connection' could be made. In particular, if Russian politicians and diplomats draw the wrong conclusions from these protests and make their own connection: the opposition is part of a US State Department plot (making support of the Sargsyan government an absolute priority).
One
need not have illusions about American or European 'good intentions'
when it comes to Russia's interests in the post-Soviet space. But to
reduce the domestic political agenda to the evil designs of the EU, Nato
and US is a serious mistake, which could have a negative impact on
Russian-Armenian relations.
Source: https://www.opendemocracy.net/sergei-markedonov/what-armenians-are-protesting-and-what-they’re-not-protesting
Sputnik: The Interests That Power Armenia's 'Electric' Protests
Armenia's
"Electric Yerevan" protests against a hike in power tariffs coincide
with Armenia's sale of a massive complex of dams to a little-known US
company with US government approval. We look at how it could impact US
influence in the region.
Protests
over electricity price hikes in Armenia follow the June 6 privatization
of Armenia's Vorotan Hydroelectric Cascade to private US holding
company ContourGlobal, reportedly financed in part by the US
government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). The protests' declared apolitical nature and the Armenian
opposition's relatively marginal role in them could indicate that the
conflict is inside Armenia's government and foreign interests rather
than an internal political movement. On Wednesday, a rally in Armenia's
neighbor Georgia is expected to take place to support the Armenian
protests.
If the protests succeed at reversing the price hike decision, they
could force the energy distributor, Russian InterRAO-owned Electric
Network of Armenia, which already operates at a loss, out of business
and open the company for acquisition, considerably changing the
country's energy landscape. "In Armenia's energy system, this cascade is
the unit generating the cheapest power. If it is sold for the said $180
million, the new owner will in the near future raise electricity prices
by at least 20 to 25 percent," the head of Armenia's Domestic Produers
Union Vazgen Safaryan said after the cascade's sale.
Armenia's opposition demanded that the government prevent the stations' privatization as recently as 2014. The leader of the opposition Armenian National Congress, Levon Ter-Petrosyan called the deal illegal in 2014. The current protesters do not appear to have issued any statements on the sale. Armenia's opposition underwent a considerable restructuring earlier in 2015. "We are not against the sale. But we doubt the terms of the deal, the logic of the price formation, and so on," member of parliament from the opposition Prosperous Armenia party Mikael Melkumyan said in June.
The Vorotan Hydroelectric Cascade, which generates half of Armenia's hydroelectric power, is also reportedly one of the country's most profitable companies, with a 23 percent annual profit rate. The cascade also has the lowest electricity generation costs in all of Armenia. The privatization of the company to ContourGlobal violated multiple Armenian laws, including Armenia's laws on water resources and its privatization law. The deal, which required parliamentary approval to sell the holding, was negotiated on the executive level by the country's president and its Ambassador to the US, Tigran Sargsyan. "The Vorotan Cascade is by itself unique because on the territory of the entire former Soviet Union this cascade, has the biggest slope. This provides the cheapness of the electricity it supplies," Melkumyan added.
While
Electric Networks of Armenia has not linked its price hike
policy to ContourGlobal's Vorotan acquisition, it has posted statements
on its website, stating that the hike is due to increased supplier
prices, citing a World Bank expert. In an official statement, the
company also said that factors such
as the decrease in hydroelectric power generation in Armenia have been
behind the price increase, as the company continued investing into the
modernization of Armenia's power grid despite lower revenue. "In total,
Energy Networks of Armenia received 37 billion drams ($78.2 million)
less revenue than planned," the statement said. Armenia's second hydroelectric power cascade, the Sevano-Radzan
Cascade 90-percent owned by Russian RusHydro has been increasing power
generation, unlike the now US-owned Vorotan Cascade.
Source: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150624/1023800067.html
Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan: Foreign
media trying to politicize Yerevan protests
Foreign media reports are trying to politicize the protests in Yerevan against the electricity price hike, a political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said in an interview with Sputnik Armenia radio station in comments on Tuesday's protest and its tough dispersal by the riot police in the early hours of June 23. "This is clearly a social protest without political overtones. Although it sounds strange but the attempts to politicize it are being made by largely foreign media, especially, from Ukraine and Russia. The impression is that Armenia’s information field, especially today, in a sense, has become a platform of Russian-Ukrainian confrontation,’ said Melik-Shahnazaryan.
According to him, this tendency should be prevented as quickly as possible, because it can distract both demonstrators and government representatives from the developments that are unique to Armenia only. In comments on the fact that some foreign media describe what happened in Yerevan as "Maidan” he said they, in fact, are not particularly interested in what is really going on in Armenia, and what is the real reason behind the protest. "This is a social unrest, social rebellion, and they (foreign media) will try to use this opportunity to solve their own problems,' he added.
Another political analyst Movses Demirchyan said there is no word about the choice of the country’s development vector or the choice of a party ideology and in this sense, foreign media reports do not reflect the situation that was created in Armenia. Demirchyan found it difficult to predict how the situation will develop in the future saying that will depend on what kind of demands the activists of the protest may put forward today, and how realistic they are. The office of the prosecutor general said today it has opened a probe into "hooliganism and disturbing public order" after today morning’s dispersal of the sit-in. If found guilty, the protesters could face a fine of a jail term.
Armenia's health ministry said 25 people, including 11 police, were treated for injuries including fractures. The overnight rally was the culmination of several days of protests aimed at forcing president Serzh Sargsyan to cancel the tariff hikes, with protests also taking place on Monday in several other cities.
Source: http://arka.am/en/news/politics/foreign_media_trying_to_politicize_yerevan_protests
Pro-West NGOs, Armenian unrest and the destabilization of Russia
A number of pro-Western NGOs in Armenia perform various functions,
including the support of political processes and even overseeing foreign
elections. Now, as protests against an electricity rate hike drag on,
these groups are getting a second look. Protesters, demanding the cancellation of a 17 percent
electricity price hike that is set to take effect on August 1,
have spent another night on the streets of Armenian capital. The
demonstrators have refused to meet with Armenian President Serzh
Sargsyan to discuss their grievances, opting instead to continue
their street sit-in that began last Friday.
In the midst of these protests, and with the Ukrainian political
crisis still smoldering on Russia's doorstep, attention is being
given to some of the non-governmental organizations operating in
the country. Many of these NGOs have been funded by the United
States ever since Armenia voted for its independence following
the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“The Choice is Yours” organization, for example, which is fully
funded by Washington, actually performs in the election processes
outside the territory of Armenia. In December 2004, during the
third round of presidential elections in Ukraine, for example,
over 100 independent observers from Armenia were sent to a
province in Ukraine to monitor the elections. By the time the
2010 Ukrainian elections rolled around, the number of Armenian
election monitors from this US-funded group appeared to more than
triple. An official from “The Choice is Yours” NGO told Armenpress that “450 short-term observers
took part in the international observation mission in the
Ukrainian presidential elections.”
However, proving that Washington is directly bankrolling NGOs
lobbying on behalf of American interests in the political and
socio-political sectors is “practically
impossible,”writes Susanna Petrosyan, in Vestnik Kavkaza.
“Armenian fiscal structures have information about the
finances but they do not publish it.”
Meanwhile, other NGOs with an anti-Russian bias, such as the
"Committee for Support of Ukraine," pop up like weeds for a short
period of time and therefore are not registered at the Justice
Ministry, Petrosyan says. Mger Simonyan, the president of the Fund for Development of
Eurasian Cooperation, believes that the number of pro-West NGOs
grew significantly since Armenia joined the Russia-led Customs
Union and the Eurasian Union.
“Russian and pro-Russian public organizations of Armenia are
far behind their Western competitors. Armenia has 5-10 competent
Russian organizations and about 200 Western ones,” says
Simonyan. Meanwhile, some observers are cautious about drawing parallels
between the current Armenian unrest and the violent upheaval that
occurred during last year's Maidan protests in Kiev, Ukraine,
which ultimately forced out a democratically elected leader."If American NGOs were directly involved in the Armenian
unrest we would be seeing a lot of crude street slogans talking
about the need for 'good governance,' which is just another way
of describing politicians supported by Washington,"
Dmitry
Babich, a political analyst based in Moscow, told RT. "The
protesters all seem to be holding homemade signs demanding
economic justice, while there has been no overt blaming of
Russia."Armenians understand that Russia is not the source of their
problems," Babich said. Dr Paul Craig Roberts, the former US assistant secretary of the
Treasury for economic policy, who actually predicted turmoil for
Armenia due to foreign meddling, also shared his thoughts with RT
on the role of NGOs and how they might be used for
less-than-beneficent purposes in the realm of geopolitics.
RT:So how did
you see this coming, when it seemingly caught most people by
surprise?
Paul Craig Roberts: Well, it’s part of the
destabilization of Russia. It is part of the regime change that
neoconservatives in Washington desire to accomplish. So it was
obvious that Armenia would be subject to this type of thing. Now this particular protest, it might be innocent, it may be a
legitimate protest. But even if it is, Washington will make an
effort to turn it into more. And the same thing is going to
happen in Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan. If possible, Washington will
destabilize Kazakhstan, they would love to do that because then
they can also put pressure on China.
RT: So how do you see this unrest unfolding
then, given your suspicions?
PCR: Well, it’s not suspicions, it’s just fact:
the National Endowment for Democracy was set up in 1983 for the
explicit purpose of causing a political dissension inside of
Soviet Eastern Europe. And it is the main source of funds for
these non-governmental organizations that are active, that exist
in every former constituent part of the Soviet Union. In fact,
you have hundreds of them in Russia itself. These were created by
Washington and although the Russian government is finally taking
notice of them and put some constraints on them, they are there.
And of course they are in Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan; and they are
being used against China in Hong Kong. So they are everywhere and
they are used to try and put pressure on countries that are
trying to exercise an independent foreign policy from Washington.
RT: Do you find these protests to be
proportional to the issue of energy price rises?
PCR: Well, it didn’t unless they made a huge
increase in the electricity price that people really can’t meet;
it does seem to be an unusual thing to protest. But even if it is a legitimate protest, it does not mean that
Washington won’t jump on it and turn it to its own purpose.
Sometimes Washington will originate the protest, other times it
waits for one to happen. And then it puts its NGOs and various
bought and paid-for local politicians into the mix. We saw this
perfectly in Ukraine. And it happened in Georgia. All of these
so-called color revolutions are a product of the National
Endowment for Democracy funding of the NGOs in those countries.
And the money is also used to pay politicians who will line up
with Washington, such as the current Prime Minister of Ukraine.
RT: What do authorities need to do to ease
the public mood inside of Armenia?
PCR: I don’t know enough about this particular
situation, but the authorities everywhere that are on the
periphery of Russia and were former constituent parts of the
Soviet Union, or Russia itself, they need to understand that they
are targeted for disruption. Because that is part of Washington’s
policy of putting pressure on Russia. That’s what going on, and
people need to be aware of it. So, what they have to do: regulate
these NGOs, or watch them, or terminate the foreign funding? I
don’t know, but they need to be aware that is what they are used
for. They are not there to teach democracy and human rights and
women's rights. They are there as fifth columns for Washington.
Andrey Areshev:
Protests against electricity tariff rise in Armenia have no signs of a
coup d’etat
The protests against the electricity tariff rise in Armenia have no
signs of a coup d’etat, but they will continue until the local
authorities try to reach a compromise with citizens, Andrey Areshev, an
expert at the Center for Central Asian and Caucasus Studies of the
Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told
RIA Novosti.
“I think the situation should be resolved peacefully – given its complexity – which was also said in yesterday’s statement of Dmitry Peskov (editor: Russian President’s spokesman). It is important for Armenia, an EEU member and a country close to us (editor: Russia), to maintain socioeconomic and internal political stability. I believe that the Armenian authorities need to take steps in that direction,” the expert stressed.
He said that in order to settle the current conflict, it is first of all necessary to eliminate the prime cause that triggered discontent, namely, to deal with the issue of power price increase. In his words, some solutions can be found, including at the level of parliament – the confrontation should be moved from Yerevan streets into a more constructive course, in particular, the parliament where such issues are to be solved. Areshev said on the whole, the Armenian authorities are in control of the situation, and although various people joined the ranks of protesters, “there has always been an understanding in the country that the conflict’s development according to ‘Ukrainian’ scenario will result in very negative consequences. “Armenia have always managed to find some compromise. I think it will do it this time as well,” the expert noted.
As was reported, Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company earlier submitted a bid to the Public Services Regulatory Commission about a rise in electricity tariffs. The parliamentary opposition considers it unfounded and serving the interests of that company. The current night-time tariff for the population is 31.85 drams per one KWh, the daytime tariff is 41.85 drams. The bid of ENA proposed raising the tariffs to 48 and 58 drams respectively. Yet the Commission satisfied the bid of ENA only partially on June 17. The tariffs in Armenia will increase by 6.93 drams, and not by 17 drams. The Commission’s decision will take force on August 1, 2015. Protests against the power tariff raise have been staged in Yerevan since June 19.
“I think the situation should be resolved peacefully – given its complexity – which was also said in yesterday’s statement of Dmitry Peskov (editor: Russian President’s spokesman). It is important for Armenia, an EEU member and a country close to us (editor: Russia), to maintain socioeconomic and internal political stability. I believe that the Armenian authorities need to take steps in that direction,” the expert stressed.
He said that in order to settle the current conflict, it is first of all necessary to eliminate the prime cause that triggered discontent, namely, to deal with the issue of power price increase. In his words, some solutions can be found, including at the level of parliament – the confrontation should be moved from Yerevan streets into a more constructive course, in particular, the parliament where such issues are to be solved. Areshev said on the whole, the Armenian authorities are in control of the situation, and although various people joined the ranks of protesters, “there has always been an understanding in the country that the conflict’s development according to ‘Ukrainian’ scenario will result in very negative consequences. “Armenia have always managed to find some compromise. I think it will do it this time as well,” the expert noted.
As was reported, Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA) Company earlier submitted a bid to the Public Services Regulatory Commission about a rise in electricity tariffs. The parliamentary opposition considers it unfounded and serving the interests of that company. The current night-time tariff for the population is 31.85 drams per one KWh, the daytime tariff is 41.85 drams. The bid of ENA proposed raising the tariffs to 48 and 58 drams respectively. Yet the Commission satisfied the bid of ENA only partially on June 17. The tariffs in Armenia will increase by 6.93 drams, and not by 17 drams. The Commission’s decision will take force on August 1, 2015. Protests against the power tariff raise have been staged in Yerevan since June 19.
Source: http://www.panorama.am/en/popular/2015/06/24/areshev/
Alexander Iskandaryan: Protesters against power tariff hike in Armenia have no claims against Russia
When commenting on the fact that Electric Networks of Armenia (ENA)
Company that submitted an application for a rise in electricity tariffs
in Armenia is a daughter company of Russia’s Inter RAO UES, political
scientist Alexander Iskandaryan said that it does not necessarily mean
the protesters have claims to Russia.
“Stereotypical thinking leads people to assume that if it is a Russian company, there must be an anti-Russian component. I suppose that some people can say anything and that one can always find people who show their emotions that way. Yet there is simply no background for widespread anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,” the expert said.
He invited attention to the fact that the demonstrators have appealed to the authorities, the president, rather than they “gather outside the office of Electric Networks of Armenia”. Protesters also believe that it is up to the Armenian authorities to deal with the problem of the Russian company, Iskandaryan added. He stressed that it is a social protest, not a political one, and it was the power price hike that prompted people to take to the streets.
“Stereotypical thinking leads people to assume that if it is a Russian company, there must be an anti-Russian component. I suppose that some people can say anything and that one can always find people who show their emotions that way. Yet there is simply no background for widespread anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia,” the expert said.
He invited attention to the fact that the demonstrators have appealed to the authorities, the president, rather than they “gather outside the office of Electric Networks of Armenia”. Protesters also believe that it is up to the Armenian authorities to deal with the problem of the Russian company, Iskandaryan added. He stressed that it is a social protest, not a political one, and it was the power price hike that prompted people to take to the streets.
“It does not resemble the Ukrainian maidan. Maindan had a different, foreign political nature, but here the character of protests is domestic: it is annoyance with the economic situation. An economic stagnation has been observed in the country since 2008. The country remained in that situation for long, and there is growing annoyance with the economic scheme. Of course, it is a specific rise in prices which is a pretext, rather than a cause,” the expert noted.
“In Armenia there is a culture of street political activity. Rallies have been staged regularly since 1991. A culture of achieving something through rallies does exist in Armenia. A year ago a pension reform was scrapped. Rallies against the gas price increase took place in Yerevan, and the decision on transport fare hike was suspended. People are accustomed to the fact they can take to the streets and gain their end in some cases. True, they may not gain it, either,” Iskandaryan said.
It should be noted that amid numerous statements of Russian politicians, MPs and senators about some similarities with the Ukrainian maidan and intrigues of ‘external forces’, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on June 24 that statements to the effect that the situation in Armenia was provoked from outside need to be proven. “We will carefully examine everything that preceded it, but I would not jump to conclusions,” he said.
Source: http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2015/06/25/iskandaryan-meeting-armenia-rf/
Anatoly Karlin: Why Armenia Isn't Ukraine (Probably)
There’s this little thing called the Armenia-Azerbaijan stand off in which Armenia desperately needs Russian support (since it is not going to get it from the west)
In recent days, some Armenians have been up in arms over increases in
electricity tariffs by the evil Russian-owned electricity monopoly that
will bring them up to… well, a level slightly higher than in Russia and
about 2-3x lower than in most EU countries (don’t you love
comparative context?). Discourse in both Russia and the West has now shifted to the familiar template of color revolution. Cookie girl Victoria Nuland was in Armenia last
February in a closed meeting with NGOs, which is never a good sign, and
the Maidanist Ukrainian elites are salivating over the prospect of a
color revolution in Yerevan, with Interior Minister (and ethnic
Armenian) Arsen Avakov going so far as to express his support for the
“Electromaidan” couched in a bizarre anecdote about his adventures with a thermos in (Ukraine’s) Euromaidan.
Does
this presage the overthrow of Russia’s colonial “puppet” in Armenia and
its inevitable transition to the promised land of freedom, prosperity,
and end-of-history that all such revolutions inevitably entail?
At first, one might have cause to be skeptical. The numbers of protesters fhas been few so far: No more than 1% of Yerevan’s one million strong population. And while they do include the usual young pro-Western and anti-Russian types, there’s also plenty of older leftists and apoliticals, so for the most part it could be said to be a domestic political affair with no particular connection to questions such as Armenia’s membership in the Eurasian Economic Union or its hosting of a Russian military base in Gyumri.
In opinion polls, Armenians are highly positive towards
Russia. On the other hand, pretty much of all of this could also have
been said of Ukraine’s Euromaidan in Ukraine before November 2013. There
is however one very critical difference between Ukraine and Armenia and
it is summarized in the following chart (figures are from SIPRI):
Azerbaijan
does not much like Armenia. The two fought a war in the early 1990s
soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh, which was officially Azeri but populated by Armenians
(thanks to Georgia’s Stalin). Occupying favorable defensive
positions and enjoying high morale and funds from the diaspora, the
Armenians got by far the better of the exchange, and Nagorno-Karabakh
has since been de facto theirs, albeit that is hotly disputed by the
Azeris and unrecognized by the world community.
Azerbaijan is
fully committed to revanche, and relations between the two countries are
poisonous to an almost slapstick degree. This is mostly amply
demonstrated by the case of an Azeri military officer who murdered an Armenian counterpart while on a NATO exchange program in Hungary. Upon
being sent back to Azerbaijan to serve the rest of his life sentence,
was immediately set free by Presidential decree, named a national hero,
and given a free flat. Azerbaijan is backed to the hilt by Turkey, but
is constrained by uncertainty over Russia’s possible response to
overt aggression.
The two countries maintained a rough parity in
military spending until the mid-2000s, with Armenia also benefitting
from below market cost Russian weapon supplies. Since then, however,
Azerbaijan has surged massively ahead, and its oil-fueled military
spending is now higher than Armenia’s entire state budget.
Source: http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/why-armenia-isnt-ukraine-probably/ri8347
Paul Creig Roberts: Are Armenian Protests Aimed At Russia?
As I expected, protests have broken out in the capital of Armenia.
The pretext is a rise in electricity rates. Apparently, the rise was
not budget-breaking, which puts the pretext under suspicion. Moreover,
videos of the protesters show an overwhelming young component, which
suggests that the protesters are not the ones who pay the electricity
bills. The protest may be innocent and legitimate, but on the surface looks
yet again like National Endowment for Democracy-funded NGOs calling the
gullible and naive students into the streets.
Even if the protest is innocent, Washington will jump on it in order to turn it to Washington’s purpose. Protests are Washington’s method of putting pressure on governments
that do not adhere to Washington’s foreign policy and of effecting
regime change, as in the former Georgian and Ukrainian provinces of
Russia and the Soviet Union.
“Color revolutions” and regime change are the purpose of the National
Endowment for Democracy. This US government agency was set up in 1983
in order to spread political dissent in Soviet Eastern Europe. NED is
funded by the federal budget via the Department of State. Washington has its NGOs in all former constituent parts of the Soviet
Union and inside Russia herself. By using “color revolutions” or, as in
the case of Ukraine, regime change via an outright coup, Washington
removes governments friendly to Russia and replaces them with its
vassals. Once Russia’s periphery is in Washington’s hands, Washington
will begin to break up the Russian Federation itself.
The Russian people and their government have been slow to understand
this threat to their sovereignty. Having emerged from the authoritarian
rule of the Communist Party, Russians thought that their country would
be welcomed and supported by the United States. Russia would be as long
as Russia is willing to be a US vassal like all of Europe, Canada,
Australia, and Japan.
Once the Russian government acted in defense of its national interest
and international law and blocked Washington’s intentions against Syria
and Iran, the neoconservatives shifted their focus from the Middle East
to Russia. Having spent $5 billion cultivating Ukrainian politicians
and financing NGOs in Ukraine, Washington grabbed Ukraine while the
Russian government, trusting to Western good will, was focused on the
Sochi Olympics.
Washington has used its coup in Kiev to foment an European-Russian
crisis that harms Europeans more than Russia, but serves to keep Europe
under Washington’s thumb. The Russian government’s response to the
crisis has not been sufficiently strong to make Europeans see the error
of their ways. The weak Russian response, relying on diplomacy which Washington has
rejected and replaced with force, has encouraged Washington to further
surround Russia with regime changes. Armenia was predictable, as is
Kyrgyzstan. Kazakhstan would be the big prize as the country also
borders China. Indeed, if Washington can grab Kazakhstan, Washington
will also have Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, all
of which sits atop Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As far as I can tell, a number of influential Russians believe that
their prestige and self-esteem depend on being a part of the West.
Russians of this ilk are willing to give up Russian independence for
Western acceptance. These are the Russians on whom Washington is
relying. And these Russians are Russia’s main enemy.
Radio Liberty: 'ElectricYerevan' Protesters Chafe At Comparisons To Ukraine's Euromaidan
As protests in Yerevan and other Armenian cities enter their second
week, activists are struggling with a postmodern problem -- branding. They bristle at comparisons -- whether well-intentioned or not --
with the Euromaidan movement that ousted Ukrainian President Viktor
Yanukovych in February 2014. Babken DerGrigorian, an activist who is also a researcher at the London School of Economics and who invented the #ElectricYerevan Twitter hashtag
that has been widely adopted, has been adamant on social media that
outside observers should avoid slapping the Maidan label on events in
Armenia.
"Framing is crucial," he posted on Twitter. "IT IS NOT A MAIDAN! ITS (sic) MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN THAT!!!" Perhaps the main reason why the protesters resist this comparison is
because Russian state-controlled media and pro-Kremlin figures have been
so aggressive in insisting on it. And when they use the term "Maidan,"
they mean a U.S.-inspired anti-Russian coup. Pro-Kremlin analyst and former Duma Deputy Sergei Markov has been one
of the most outspoken. The Yerevan events "are an attempted color
revolution that has been ordered from abroad," he wrote on Facebook on
June 23.
"This attack on Yerevan was expected as a reaction to its rejection
of a semicolonial Association Agreement with the EU and its joining to
Eurasian Union," he wrote the same day. "Most likely there are many
fighters from Ukraine among the demonstrators and they are being managed
by an external headquarters run by the same political technologists
that ran Kyiv's Maidan."
Russian state-controlled television has also pushed the Maidan
comparison, prompting demonstrators to try to shout down Russian
journalists reporting from the protests.
"Last night the crowd moved through the center of Yerevan along
Marshal Bagramian Avenue, where the embassies of key European countries
are located," Russia's Vesti news program reported on June 23. "The
prosecutor's office is now interested in the protests. Inspectors are
looking into reports that the people are being provoked and incited by
some nongovernmental organizations -- of which there are dozens in
Armenia, most of which live off of grants from the United States."
As a result of such reports -- which have also included the claim
that demonstrators attacked police on June 23, prompting the authorities
to respond with water cannons -- demonstrators have been holding up
signs with slogans such as "Tell the truth!" behind Russian journalists
trying to do stand-up reports from the scene. Such Russian coverage prompted activist DerGrigorian to concede at least one comparison between Yerevan and Kyiv. Some protest supporters have tried to counter Russian media claims with humor, setting up a Facebook page featuring mocking memes and other jokes. In one, for instance, a photograph of protesters playing a game of
chess is captioned in Russian: "Armenian activists have received the
latest tactical maps from the U.S. State Department. Now they are
preparing to storm the presidential residence."
Similar In Motivation, At Least
On the other hand, some Ukrainians and others who argue that
Euromaidan was a grassroots popular movement aimed at holding corrupt
politicians accountable have been eager to see Yerevan in the same
light. "Yesterday some friends and I went down to Marshal Bagramian Avenue,"
Oleksandr Bozhko, Ukraine's former ambassador to Armenia, told RFE/RL's
Ukrainian Service on June 25. "The atmosphere that prevailed there, the
particular sense of elevation, the confidence of the people in the
justice of their cause, of course, reminded me of Kyiv's Maidan. And it
even seemed to me that I had gone back to the autumn of 2013."
The main spokespeople for the Armenian protesters insist that
#ElectricYerevan is not an anti-Russian phenomenon, but is narrowly
aimed at the repeal of a government decision to raise electricity rates
for the third time in recent years and the investigation of possible
corruption and mismanagement at the country's monopoly electricity
supplier. They insist the fact that the electricity supplier is owned by a
Russian company is irrelevant to their basic contention that ordinary
Armenians are being asked to pay for poor management and the government
is doing nothing to protect them.
Yelizaveta Khramtsova, a correspondent for Russia's LifeNews channel,
says demonstrators consistently tell her to report that their demands
are not "political" and they are not calling for a change of government.
"There is nothing like in Kyiv here," Khramtsova tells RFE/RL. "I was
in Kyiv and I can say that these are two different situations."
"The important thing is that we realize Armenia will not follow the Ukrainian scenario," she adds. Razmik Avagian, an ethnic Armenian who lives in Sweden but who is
participating in some of the protests, says that the international media
"make things more complicated than they really are."
Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia-electricyerevan-protesters-chafe-at-euromaidan-comparison/27095421.html
Electric Yerevan and Lessons on the Color-Spring Tactic
The Electric Yerevan protest provides us with an excellent opportunity
to review some of the basic underlying mechanics and psychology of the
Color-Spring tactic. It is important to share these publicly, for it is
indeed probable that the Color-Spring tactic will be increasingly
applied in the world as a “hybrid soft-power/hard-power tactic”.
A moral principle held by Gene Sharp, who was one of the tactic’s
main developers, was that violence is not necessary for revolution. What
is strange, contradictory, even dishonest here is that violence is
reduced taxonomically to the physical violence of the state’s gendarmes
against the civilians. But we know that violence comes in many forms.
We live in a time of great violence; physical, psychological, legal,
economic, spiritual violence. Not only has the Color Revolution tactic
engendered the latter four, but its mutation into the Arab Spring tactic
also employs heinous physical violence. We can see today, tens of
thousands dead in Libya, hundreds of thousands in Syria, and a mounting
figure in Ukraine which threatens to surpass the precedents.
 |
| “Non-violent” change in Syria |
Novices to political science and political activism may be lured by
the spectre and spectacle of the Color Revolution method that has
characterized ostensible movements for radical social change in the last
generation. The symbols have become iconic and clichéd: the tent city,
the die-in, the girl placing flowers in the gendarme’s gun barrels,
water cannons and tear-gas, the fist flag.
What is missing of course from this view is an understanding of the
real social forces in a society, class and economic forces. For forty
years, genuine activism, labor union militancy, has been marginalized.
In place of direct action against the ruling class at the very places
that make their wealth, is a strange simulation of late 1960’s student
activism; shown to us on a never-ending film reel loop. Others have caught on to the fact that the US has been funding these
protest movements, and that these ‘grass-roots’ movements are in fact
astroturf movements. Still, it is misunderstood how the US viewed these
governments before they tried to destabilize them.
One thing which is often popularly misunderstood about the
Color-Spring tactic, by those who know that the US is behind them, is
that governments being targeted for regime change by the US are not just
those which have apparently bad relations with the US, but may in fact
be generally US-friendly governments. By and large, in fact, the latter
is the case. We will be exploring this aspect as it relates to
Armenia. Also we will look at some of the methods used in the application of
this tactic in Armenia, and at the general psychological and technical
framework of the organizing methods.
 |
| Gene Sharp – a man of ‘Non-Violence’ |
Why the US Targets ‘Regimes’ for ‘Change’
In the Color-Spring tactic, the US may target countries for ‘regime
change’ that it has had generally constructive relations with, but whose
other ties are increasingly problematic. It may be also generally
friendly countries who refuse to commit resources to reshaping regional
power balances, such as with Mubarak in Egypt, who was reluctant to
interfere with Syria. Another reason may be that the targeted country
has a natural relationship with other countries in its region which,
regardless of the official position of the government, promotes certain
economic and meta-political relationships and developments which are
contrary to US interests. In the latter case, it may be desirable to
employ a scorched earth policy, known as the ‘failed state’, in order to
destroy the material foundations of economic and political coherency.
Given the failure of the Orange Revolution to frustrate relations
with Russia, the situation in Ukraine may be an example of this scorched
earth/failed state strategy. Conclusively, the Color-Spring tactic is
compatible with any number of strategies, and can be a part of
producing any number of desired outcomes, and as such is a very useful
weapon to possess.
How the US Sets up a ‘Regime’ for ‘Change’
In this tactic, the US can effectively hide behind itself. It works
to create or at least catalyze the very situation which it later
exploits. From one of the pioneers of the Color/Spring tactic at
Dartmouth and Harvard, Gene Sharp – whose work follows that of Saul
Alinsky and others – we can reflect on the following truths:
1.) People often think of redressing grievances politically in terms
of protests by citizens; it is under the legal-constitutional framework
as citizens that protests are legitimate.
2.) The mischief of mercantile and private interests: companies,
corporations, investment consortia, etc., often are the source of
public discontent.
3.) Yet it is the government’s approval of (or inability to work
against) these private interests which, by and large, becomes the focus
of citizen protests.
4.) People generally understand that one actor (such as the US) may
benefit from being behind one side of a given conflict. But the idea
that one actor may simultaneously generate the problem, provoke a public
reaction, and then back a pre-planned solution of its liking, strikes
many as either difficult to understand or ‘conspiratorial’ in nature.
5.) Thus, the US can with a relative degree of public stealth, be the
promoter and main beneficiary of these above described private
interests in the short term, while simultaneously using the public
discontent that these logically produce, as a vehicle to leverage
long-term pressure upon that same government, up to and including
‘regime change’.
The basic framework of the ‘Electric Yerevan’ protests is a prime
example of this dynamic. The reasons why average Armenians would take
part in and support these protests are rational, and from the
perspective of the public interest, even supportable at face value. The
US, working through its network of NGO assets and favored charitable
corporate entities, seeks to steer these protests in an anti-Russian
direction.
Why the US wants to ‘Regime Change’ Armenia
When Armenia joined Eurasian Economic Union on January 2nd, 2015, it
made history. This was a civilizational decision which would define its
relationship to the world for the coming period. The US saw this
coming partly as a result of the previous elections. The US had been a
longstanding partner in various Armenian economic and political
projects, ever since the collapse of the USSR almost twenty-five years
ago.
Armenia never lost its close ties with Russia, and in the previous
period – which in US foreign policy we might say ended with the 2007
economic crisis – it was acceptable for the US within the framework of
the US’s lukewarm relationship with Russia, and the US’s course at that
time, for Armenia to maintain good relations with Russia.
Nevertheless, the US never lost sight of the importance of Armenia to
Russia, and vice-versa. The US continued to play the regional power
politics, in terms of encouraging and promoting the pre-existing
conflicts and problematic historical narratives between
Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Insofar as the US could not decisively improve its power base within
Armenia, it simultaneously promoted a weak Armenia policy (similar to
its Serbia policy) which significantly favored Georgia and others. The
end of 2014 was when the US made a major decision.
Indeed, when the winds of change were felt a few years ago in
Armenia, the US changed its policy and appointed a new US ambassador in
December 2014, and declared that the US will substantially cut funding
and assistance to Armenia, and will terminate several projects that were
in development. The February 13th, 2013 presidential elections, as
well as the May 6th, 2012 parliamentary elections were critical. It
has been discussed for some years that Armenia would be joining the
Eurasian Union, and US efforts to steer that discourse ultimately
failed.
The general context here is that going back to 1994, Armenia joined
the important Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). This, as
it is known, is what the Russian Federation has been building with
former Soviet republics as a replacement to the unified command
structure of the Soviet Army.
Despite Armenia’s willingness to globally diversify its partnerships
(including in the energy markets which are critical to ‘Electric
Yerevan’), the post-2007 period has been characterized by a change in
the US’s tolerance for balanced or multi-polar foreign policies in other
countries. The US has never been a paragon of free market liberties,
and to the contrary, as a realist oriented actor on the global stage,
has always used tariffs, exclusive agreements, and gunboat diplomacy
within its repertoire in pursuit of its own interests; i.e., the
interests of its ruling elite. But the upping of the ante vis-à-vis the
‘BRICS and friends’ nations has significantly changed the climate and
the rules of the game.
Despite Armenia’s willingness to allow US companies and NGO’s to
operate in Armenia, it’s membership in the Eurasian Union and CSTO
remains the US’s primary reason for targeting Armenia for regime change.
Why the US Thinks it can get Armenians to ‘Regime Change’
As we have explained, the US’s use of the Color-Spring tactic does
not negate the fact that the Armenian government has faced massive
public discontent over several ongoing issues. Because Armenia’s economy
and public budget is so tied to the global economy, government
initiatives to increase prices or taxes related to public sector
services are essentially a public recognition of economic fact; a
rubber-stamping of a reality being created far beyond Armenia’s borders
or the reach of its government. A number of protests preceded this one, and while they were popular
for tangible reasons, they were also a training ground for the
organizers of ‘Electric Yerevan’.
Protests happened two years ago when the government indicated its
need to increase the transportation fare by 50%. In this case, elements
of the public protested for a week and the government heeded these
demands. Additionally, this type of protest happened last year in opposition
to a new pension fund system, and the struggle to abolish this lasted
for six months. But what was popularly promoted by the NGO leadership among
protesters in both of these policy-protest movements, was that people
are doing this without any leadership or organization.
Because there is an organizational history of protests, with
organizers taking notes and perfecting various methods and strategems on
the ground, US financed organizers may now believe they are in the
position to escalate the present protest into a ‘regime change’
scenario.
They might believe this because they have been escalating the whole
time. In labor and community action-organizing, planning works by the
method of escalation. Each step that escalates is harder to pull off,
but is harder for the target to withstand. If you have accurately
assessed your organizing results so far, and if the prior escalations
have succeeded, then the next step stands a better chance at success. Now this protest dubbed ‘Electric Yerevan’, organized under the
project name ”No To Plunder”, against the electricity cost increase, is
being promoted as a self-organised internal protest which has no leader
and no political affiliation, including with the opposition.
Activists claim, and many believe, that there are no political
dimensions, no political slogans, and no call for resignations. They
claim that they are not against any country (Russia), are not for any
country or international body (USA or NATO), and that they do not call
for revolution, nor demand any change in government policy. At this stage, we can see they have attempted to sanitize the
protests as purely being a demand for an investigation into the workings
of the Electric Networks of Armenia.
The Protester’s ‘Demand’ Reveals the real Target
The reason that this demand is indeed political, geopolitical, and
geostrategic, is that the power distributor Electric Networks of
Armenia is controlled by one of the successors to Russia’s electricity
giant, Unified Energy System of Russia (RAO UES). Under a
reorganization plan in 2008, RAO UES technically ceased to exist, with
its 51% government shares being largely privatized as well, but the
successor network is commonly referred to by this name as a matter of
habit, and because the various entities are essentially managed in the
same centralized manner.
This makes a perfect narrative to steer this in an anti-Russian
direction, and lay the blame at the government’s relationship with
Russian firms. The purpose of this call for an investigation into
Electric Networks of Armenia is more clear when we understand who the
protest organizers ignore: the US company, ContourGlobal. ContourGlobal purchased the Vorotan Hydro Cascade, a complex
consisting of three hydroelectric plants, on June 6th, 2015.
ContourGlobal then increased its projected operating costs, compelling
the government to recognize this, which the distributor, Electric
Networks of Armenia, was forced to pass on to consumers.
In other words, the demands of the protest organizers exclude both
the facts and the recent history of the issue, focusing instead on a
downstream element, the distribution end of the industry. Rather than demanding socialization of the Vorotan Hydro Cascade,
protest organizers – not without reason – are hyperventilating the
public into an anti-Russian direction. This direction focuses just
on Electric Networks of Armenia and its control by RAO UES. This
relationship is reinforced by the Eurasian Union.
Economies of scale tend to deliver goods and services at a lower cost
when compared to smaller scale operations. Armenia has a population of
about 3 million. “RAO UES”, in the wake of the collapse of the USSR, is
and was well positioned to manage the affairs of Electric Networks of
Armenia. “RAO UES” essentially inherited the system used by the USSR,
which was already designed to maximize output on a non-profit basis, by
using a centralized management system. However, “RAO UES” and its
successors are not ‘non profit’, and public outrage against a basic
utility such as power being run on a for-profit basis is rooted.
Nevertheless, we may believe at first that the relatively limited
demand to focus just on the “RAO UES” could be relatively benign: heed
the protester’s demands, conduct the investigation, and shift budgetary
items around, or take on further debt in order to cover the cost of the
rate hike reduction.
Organizing and Manipulating: The Course of Escalation
Ultimately, the Color-Spring tactic – in borrowing from the rich
history of left-wing social protest movements, as reflected upon by Saul
Alinsky in Rules for Radicals – begins with minimal demands
before moving forward to the maximal ones. This moves the protest
movement from a relatively benign one; based upon a popular framework of
peaceful assembly and seemingly realistic and necessary demands, into a
full-scale scene of chaos and disorder which forces the gendarmes of
the state to act, thereby finally de-legitimatizing the already shaky
government.
The demands change as ‘things change'; the nature of the Color-Spring
tactic always involves a developing list of demands which grow and
change in strategically planned stages. Each reform that the government
commits to as a compromise, to meet the demands of the protest
organizers, is not promoted by the organizers as a sign of goodwill on
the part of the government. Rather, the concessions are couched as proof that the government was
wrong in the first place, proof that all alleged excesses of law
enforcement were indeed criminal acts, and proof that the power of the
people is growing, that the government is afraid, weak, and divided; and
that now is the moment to push forward with more and more demands.
An interesting distinction that Alinsky makes is between organizing
and manipulating. Organizing is when the ‘leading from behind’ is done
in the best interests of those being led. Manipulating is when the
leading is done against the interests of the led. Given the results of
the Color-Spring tactic in the last few decades, the US’s co-option of
Alinsky’s work probably fits the latter description; and by their own
professed ideas the employees and volunteers of these US backed NGO’s in
Yerevan ought to be called ‘Manipulators’ instead of ‘Organizers’.
From Riot to ‘Revolution’ and the Dynamics of Group Psychology
The group psychology of the encampment in Yerevan changes by the day.
The more time the protesters spend with each other, the more they have
common memories and the more they think and act as a single unit. The
tone of the protest movement becomes more severe, more fatalistic: it
becomes the final, last stand.
The protesters are manipulated by the organizers and lose any sense
of history or proportion. Those who speak the most, who call the
regular meetings, seem like natural, honest, charismatic figures. They
symbolically project and communicate ‘goodness’. In reality they are
highly trained organizers whose first area of expertise is in
downplaying or concealing the organization that trained them, and the
organized nature of the proceedings. The ‘sworn testimony’ of the
regular encampment participants that there was ‘no leadership’ is honest
testimony; the simulation has been executed very well.
Paul Goble: 'Armenia is not a new Maidan. Please don't make it one'
Protests against electricity price hikes in Yerevan have little in
common with Ukraine’s uprising – but Russian geopolitical rhetoric has a
habit of making self-fulfilling prophecies, says Paul Goble
Many Russian analysts are hurrying to suggest that this week’s protests in Yerevan and their suppression by the Armenian government are the opening round of a new Maidan – an anti-Moscow action promoted and exploited by the west as part of a broader geopolitical struggle. But such an interpretation of events, if it comes to guide policy,
could prove to be the worst form of a self-fulfilling prophecy,
transforming what are protests by Armenians about domestic conditions
into something more. Should Moscow choose to defend the existing
authorities in Yerevan no matter what, it would alienate the country
against Russia.
That is the conclusion Sergey Markedonov of the Russian State Humanities University offers in his latest commentary,
one that constitutes a clear warning to the Kremlin, as well as
analysts inside Russia and abroad, about misreading the situation on the
ground by trying to make everything fit a pre-existing framework. Those who read every case of popular discontent in the post-Soviet
space as a Maidan or proto-Maidan are falling victim to a kind of
geopolitical determinism, as Markedonov puts it, according to which
“practically any [protest movement] is only an expression of ‘a proxy
war’ between the United States and Russia.”
Such people are taking the lazy way out, and forgetting that “a
political crisis is not a virus” which spreads from one place to
another, but rather reflects specific problems, however much some of
those who are participating in it – both the regimes andthose who oppose
them – draw on past cases in their vocabulary. What is happening in Armenia is decidedly not like what happened in Ukraine.
For one thing, Russia considers Armenia its strategic partner. For
another, the government and the people are not divided in their attitude
toward Moscow. Some in the government question Yerevan’s ties with
Russia; and many in the streets would like to see those ties deeper.
In short, the Moscow analyst says, the issue of Russia is not the
defining element in their struggle and it is critically important that
“in Moscow people do not fall victim to emotions and look for signs of a
Maidan where they are hard to find”. Rather, Russia must recognise that
the protesters are not unhappy with the Kremlin but with Yerevan’s own
power structure.
“If Russian politicians and diplomats draw incorrect conclusions and
link the opposition to the actions of the [US] State Department”,
Markedonov says, they will create a situation in which Moscow will have
to support the Armenian government no matter what, something that could
have the effect of alienating Armenians from it. In that event, what is a domestic Armenian problem today could become
a Maidan tomorrow, and thus something larger and more dangerous for
Russia. Instead, the analyst urges that Russia keep its lines open to
both the government and people of Armenia and encourage a settlement rather than backing only one horse. Markedonov concludes with the observation that he “has no illusions
relative to the good intentions of the Americans or Europeans with
regard to Russian interests on the post-Soviet space. But to reduce
everything to the ill intentions of the US, NATO or the EU is an
enormous mistake.”
Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/25/armenia-yerevan-protests-kremlin-ukraine
Radio Liberty: Russian
'Profiteering' At Heart Of Armenian Power Protests
Russia owns Armenia's power-distribution grid, and Armenian consumers
are furious about the way they are being treated by the firm when it
comes to paying for electricity. Protests have been growing in Yerevan
and other Armenian cities since the country's Public Services
Regulatory Commission voted on June 17 to raise electricity prices by 16
percent. A violent police crackdown on June 23 against demonstrators and journalists in Yerevan has fueled the anger further, bringing even larger crowds of protesters out to Yerevan's Liberty Square.
The plan to raise power prices by 16 percent as of August 1 came
after Inter RAO UES -- the Russian state-controlled electrical-energy
import and export monopoly that acquired Electric Networks of Armenia
(ENA) in 2006 -- asked for a 40 percent increase. Amid reports of widespread misappropriation and mismanagement by
ENA's Russian leadership, many Armenians say they are the victims of
Russian corruption and oligarchs.
'Servile' Attitude To Russia
Meanwhile, Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian's government has refused to investigate ENA's financial matters. Armen Grigorian, an Armenian political scientist and analyst for the
Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, says a "habitual servile attitude
toward the Russians" among Armenian officials is being paid for by
ordinary Armenian citizens. "Russian ownership of Armenia's gas and electricity supply and
distribution networks has not resulted in the discounts or higher
quality of services that were expected by Russia's loyalists," Grigorian
says. "Rather, it appears to have led to profiteering at the expense of
the country's population."
Armenia provides a crucial foothold for Moscow in the strategic South
Caucasus, hosting a large Russian military base, and this year joined
Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan in the Eurasian Economic Union, one of
the groupings the Kremlin is using to increase its clout in former
Soviet republics. However, Grigorian says, "Despite the 'strategic partnership' and
'brotherhood' narratives, Armenian households pay the highest
electricity fees in the post-Soviet space, and household gas prices
exceed even the costs paid by consumers in Ukraine" -- which is fighting
Russian-backed separatists in a bloody conflict -- and in some European
Union member states.
Losing Money?
ENA's managers, led by the firm's Russian general manager, Yevgeny
Bibin, have attempted to justify the price-hike demand by pointing to
the company's low profitability and mounting debt, which have resulted
in overall losses. Grigorian says that those explanations "seem suspect" and that "complaints about losses suffered by ENA do not seem justified." A report published by Inter RAO UES itself showed that the Russian
company's revenue from Armenia was $104 million for the first quarter of
2015, compared to $60 million in the first quarter of 2014. The May 2015 report said that the company's earnings from Armenia
before interest, taxes, depreciation and other adjustments also rose
during that period, increasing from $2.23 million to about $12.3
million.
Paying High Prices
Meanwhile, RFE/RL's Armenian Service has documented how ENA's Russian
managers have been paying, on average, about 20 percent above the
market price for equipment, electrical cables, and other materials it
has purchased since 2013 -- usually from Russian suppliers or Armenian
firms with close ties to the government. In one example, RFE/RL investigative reporters in Yerevan found that
ENA was paying eight times the market price for electrical gloves.
According to ENA's own records, its Russian management paid more than
1,000 times the market price for concrete supplies from the Ararat
Cement Factory, which is owned by influential government-connected
tycoon Gagik Tsarukian. Tsarukian is a parliament deputy and head of the Armenian National
Olympic Committee. His daughter is married to the son of Prime Minister
Hovik Abrahamian.
After RFE/RL published the price that ENA itself had reported paying
to Tsarukian's concrete firm, ENA responded by saying those figures were
the result of a technical error. But Robert Nazarian, the chairman of Armenia's Public Services
Regulatory Commission, has said that ENA simply made up the figures for
those payments. RFE/RL also found that services supplied to ENA by contractor
companies were, on average, about 14 percent above the market price.
The Armenian parliament's oversight committee reported in April that
ENA had paid a Russian-owned electricity producer in Yerevan more than
twice as much for supplies during 2014 than it had paid Armenian-owned
firms for the same amount of electricity. Transparency International also has said that the way ENA pays for
supplies, salaries, travel, and other costs is not transparent.
Poor Service
Despite such reports, the Public Services Regulatory Commission said
on June 24 that their decision to raise electricity prices for ordinary
Armenians was economically justified. ENA also faces complaints about poor service and frequent power outages in Armenia. Critics say that since it was taken over by its Russian owners, the
firm has failed to modernize the aging infrastructure that delivers
electricity to about 985,000 consumers -- despite a 10-year, $45 million
loan issued to ENA in 2009 by the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development to improve Armenia's power-distribution network.
The Russian owner of Armenia's power grid is one of the largest
Russian public energy companies on the basis of market capitalization.
Inter RAO UES heads a group of more than 20 different companies based in
more than a dozen other countries from Europe to Asia. In Armenia, it also operates the Metsamor nuclear power plant, which
produces about 40 percent of the electricity generated in the country.
Other assets that Inter RAO UES owns outright in Armenia include the
Hrazdan thermal power plant, which it has been expanding with help from
Russia's state-controlled natural gas giant, Gazprom.
Armenia does not produce its own natural gas. It depends upon Russian
supplies shipped to the Armenian border by Gazprom and purchased by
Gazprom Armenia, a firm which is fully owned by Gazprom. Natural gas accounts for about half of Armenia's total energy consumption, including about a third of its power generation.
Source:http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia-russian-profiteering-at-heart-of-protests/27091644.html
Richard Giragosian: This is not Armenia's Maidan moment - yet
![Armenian demonstrators during a protest against an increase in electricity prices in Yerevan, Armenia [Getty]](http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/imagecache/mbdxxlarge/mritems/Images/2015/6/26/2ac37379458d425c8ff20ebaada0da63_18.jpg "This is not Armenia's Maidan moment - yet")
As an estimated 10,000 people in Armenia joined round-the-clock
protests over a recent rise in electricity prices on June 24,
demonstrators sensed a turning point on the fourth day of this
outpouring of discontent. The turning point was evident as scores of
normally disengaged, first-time protesters descended on the protest site
to show solidarity and support. Yet this wave of protest represents much more than a display of
anger over an energy price rise. And these demonstrations are only the
latest in a series of civic actions against the Armenian government.
This recent round of protests against the Armenian government
represents something new and novel. Public demonstrations themselves are
certainly not new for Armenia. But the protesters, largely consisting
of the young, educated, and empowered, stand as a new challenge for the
government. Unlike the more traditional political rallies and protests of
Armenia's opposition parties, these demonstrations deprive the
authorities of any avenue for political negotiation, and the protesters
are simply not interested in anything short of concession.
More than energy
While this lack of politicisation served as an important
advantage for protesters in the initial period, it is now becoming a
weakness, as the need for a strategy for coherent political demands is
now apparent. Yet, despite that serious shortcoming in leadership, the
momentum of the protests is likely to only deepen, and not dissipate.
Such an outlook of sustained momentum is grounded in the fact
that these protests are also about more than energy prices. The
discontent is much deeper, rooted in a broader economic downturn, as
seen by an already severe one-third decrease in remittances coming to
Armenia from abroad. This cut in remittances has hit many ordinary
families in Armenia, who depend on the money for basic commodities and
food staples.
A second, related element that has only exacerbated the
situation is the anger over the arrogance of the Russian-owned energy
company in Armenia that has pushed the Armenian government for the
electricity price rise. The Russian connection does not necessarily mean that these protests
are directed against Moscow, and they are certainly not a Kiev-style
'Maidan moment'.
The anger and outrage over Russian arrogance was not only
rooted in the exposure of lavish spending on luxury vehicles and homes
for the Russian executives, but grew due to the company's refusal to
respond to a request by the Armenian parliament to defend the move in
the legislative debate over the price rise. The Russian connection does not necessarily mean that these
protests are directed against Moscow, and they are certainly not a
Kiev-style "Maidan moment".
But against the backdrop of a pre-existing crisis in
Armenian-Russian relations in the wake of the brutal murder of an entire
Armenian family by a Russian conscript stationed at the Russian base in
Armenia, any additional public perception of a Russian insult to
Armenian sovereignty only escalates tension.
Russian economy
And with the cause of the decline in remittances directly
linked to the downturn in the Russian economy, which is the source for
roughly 90 percent of all remittances coming into Armenia, there is a
broader aspect to such public anger. But it is also a "crisis of confidence" in the Armenian
government that is driving these protests. In fact, one key lesson from
the earlier round of demonstrations over the Armenian government's
half-hearted attempt to introduce sweeping pension reforms was that
those earlier public protests were based as much on a lack of trust in
the government's capacity to fairly implement the reform as the pension
reform itself.
Moreover, this crisis of confidence in the government has also
been matched by a destabilising degree of government arrogance, where
key decisions are taken with little or no public preparation or
engagement. This was most notably demonstrated by the Armenian
president's unilateral and abrupt decision to commit Armenia to joining
the Russian-led Eurasian Union in September 2013, which thereby ended
Armenia's hopes to conclude an Association Agreement with the European
Union.
No Armenian government has been able to handle public protests. For the Armenian authorities, the traditional response has always been a reflexive resort to force, in varying degrees of excess and abuse. This was most evident in the country's violent clashes during its 2008 post-election crisis, in which 10 people died and many more were wounded in a violent crackdown on demonstrators by police.
Given its consistent failure to communicate, the government's
inability to strike a delicate balance in response means that there is
little likelihood of a negotiated way out of this confrontation. This
was only confirmed by the excessive force used by police during an
initial attempt to forcibly disperse the protests on June 22, which also
included the mass arrests of some 230 demonstrators and journalists. Thus, while the immediate outlook of these mounting protests in
Armenia remains far from clear, it is fairly certain that Armenia faces
a long, hot summer of discontent in the weeks to come.
Source: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/06/armenia-maidan-moment-150625112125114.html
Freedom House: Armenian protesters were exercising their constitutional rights
Freedom House issued a statement regarding the recent peaceful protest in Yerevan that was dispersed by police on June 23. “Freedom House condemns the arrest of 237 peaceful protesters by police,” said Susan Corke, director of Eurasia programs. “The thousands of Armenians who marched in Yerevan to protest widespread corruption were exercising their constitutional rights to freedom of assembly and expression. The images of hospitalized civilians, beaten journalists, and broken filming equipment show that these rights are being trampled. We call for a full and transparent investigation of these unprovoked incidents of police brutality and use of force against peaceful demonstrators.”
Source: http://news.am/eng/news/273705.html
Opportunity of one-year free education in Great Britain for Armenian students
The British Embassy Yerevan is offering Chevening Scholarships, funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and administered by the British Council. Press service of the British Council told Armenpress that these cover the costs of study (including living expenses and international flights) in the United Kingdom for 12 months. They are awarded on a competitive basis for Master's degree programme in the fields of: conflict prevention and resolution; development of the public sector to meet EU and other international standards; strengthening free/unbiased media. Applicants must have the potential to rise to positions of leadership and influence. They will need to demonstrate that they possess the personal, intellectual and interpersonal attributes reflecting this potential. Although the scholars must meet the academic requirements for their courses of study, academic excellence is not the determining selection criterion for the scholarship. The criteria for suitability are: applicants should ideally be aged 25-35 but applications from all ages are welcome, should already hold a higher education diploma, hold a higher education diploma, should have at least two years work experience in their selected field of study, have an adequate standard of English, and should be committed to return to Armenia and contribute to the development of the country. All applications must be made on-line. Deadline for submitting applications is 23 January 2
Source: http://armenpress.am/eng/news/669866/Opportunity_of_one-year_free_education_in_Great_Britain_for_Armenian_students.html
Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Who should apply? Applicants should be:
- Motivated to make a career that will take them to positions of leadership in their own country within ten years of their scholarship
- Able to use their studies and experience in the UK to benefit themselves, their countries and the UK
- Natural influencers and talented communicators, with energy and ambition
- People who value networking and who can demonstrate the value of networks to their studies, and to bringing about change on a global level
- Intelligent, with demonstrable academic potential
- Strong characters with integrity, drive, and the ability to self manage and work independently
Research Fellowship Opportunity at Chatham House for Armenian Citizens
Through the program, fellows will complete a personal research project with the aim of producing a peer-reviewed publication, undertaken with the guidance of a Chatham House expert. This portion will account for half of the fellowship. The remaining time will be spent participating in the Academy’s Leadership Program and contributing to the ongoing research activities of their host research team. The fellowship is aimed at candidates at the mid-stage of their career and who come from academia, NGOs, business, government departments, civil society, or the media. They should possess knowledge of, and an interest in, one of the policy-related challenges laid out in the Russia and Eurasia Program‘s research topics, which include:
Internal Dynamics
- Developments in Economic Growth, Modernization and Democratization in the Eastern Partnership Countries and/or Russia
- Domestic Political Elites and Networks of Power
- Societal Changes, Social Capital, Migration, Inter-ethnic Relations and Non-state Actors
- State Capacity, Resilience, and External Influences on Domestic Politics in Eastern Partnership Countries and/or Russia
- Relations between EU/NATO and the Eastern Partnership Countries/Russia
- Security and Conflict Resolution
- Prospects for Intra-regional Conflict or Cooperation
- Relations between the Eastern Partnership Countries and Russia
Armenia First in Region in Winning US Green Cards
Source: http://news.am/eng/news/77821.html
American University of Armenia hosts talk on Turkish identity
Meltem Naz Kaşo, a former Today's Zaman daily reporter and a research
fellow participating in a Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme established
by the Hrant Dink Foundation, was a guest speaker at the event.
Participants included 25 second-year Armenian students who took the
Armenian Language and Literature course at the university. The class was
taught in English and focused on the questions of identity formation
through literature. The course instructor at the AUA, Nareg Seferian, who invited Kaşo to
the event, told Today's Zaman that it was the first time that many of
his students had interacted with a Turk in their lives. “This was a
thought-provoking session for them. A seed was planted in their minds to
transform clashing narratives into a much more nuanced common
narrative,” he said.
Kaşo's discussion focused on three aspects of Turkish identity that she found important to the collective identity of her native country. “The Turkish identity is not a rigid construction, quite unlike Armenian culture in Armenia, which appears somewhat monolithic [and] consists of a single religion, race and certain traditions,” she said. Her talk highlighted Islam; the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the republic's founder; and patriarchy as three key values of the Turkish identity. “These three aspect of ‘Turkishness' are usually in conflict with each other, causing Turks both individually and as a society to struggle to be in peace with themselves,” she said. Kaşo also mentioned the increasing polarization among Turks based mostly on the questions of the practice of their faith, social class and political stance.
After the talk on Turkish identity, Seferian told Today's Zaman that in modern times, it was very easy to base Armenian identity in a stark contrast with the Turkish one. The idea is that “we are Armenians because we are not Turks,” Seferian explained. According to him, Armenian students are not exposed to the Turkish identity enough. “The Turk is a character or a figure in Armenians' minds. It comes from their collective memory. The Turk is not a person with a story,” he said to Today's Zaman. Students were also active participants of the event, raising questions both during and before the talk and also sharing their perspectives. They were made up of Armenians coming from different countries, including Canada, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Netherlands and the United States.
Meghety Karjikian, a Lebanese-Armenian student who joined the Turkish identity talk, spoke to Today's Zaman after the event. “I am glad we had this talk because we needed it. We had been exposed to only one side of the story,” she said. The Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme promotes cross-border affiliation and cooperation of professionals from Armenia and Turkey within the framework of the Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process program financed by the European Union.
Kaşo's discussion focused on three aspects of Turkish identity that she found important to the collective identity of her native country. “The Turkish identity is not a rigid construction, quite unlike Armenian culture in Armenia, which appears somewhat monolithic [and] consists of a single religion, race and certain traditions,” she said. Her talk highlighted Islam; the legacy of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the republic's founder; and patriarchy as three key values of the Turkish identity. “These three aspect of ‘Turkishness' are usually in conflict with each other, causing Turks both individually and as a society to struggle to be in peace with themselves,” she said. Kaşo also mentioned the increasing polarization among Turks based mostly on the questions of the practice of their faith, social class and political stance.
After the talk on Turkish identity, Seferian told Today's Zaman that in modern times, it was very easy to base Armenian identity in a stark contrast with the Turkish one. The idea is that “we are Armenians because we are not Turks,” Seferian explained. According to him, Armenian students are not exposed to the Turkish identity enough. “The Turk is a character or a figure in Armenians' minds. It comes from their collective memory. The Turk is not a person with a story,” he said to Today's Zaman. Students were also active participants of the event, raising questions both during and before the talk and also sharing their perspectives. They were made up of Armenians coming from different countries, including Canada, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Netherlands and the United States.
Meghety Karjikian, a Lebanese-Armenian student who joined the Turkish identity talk, spoke to Today's Zaman after the event. “I am glad we had this talk because we needed it. We had been exposed to only one side of the story,” she said. The Turkey-Armenia Fellowship Scheme promotes cross-border affiliation and cooperation of professionals from Armenia and Turkey within the framework of the Support to the Armenia-Turkey Normalisation Process program financed by the European Union.
How British spies covertly shape the flow of information online to 'discredit' their targets
British spies build fake websites, impersonate people, and create "persuasive" YouTube videos to disrupt their targets' activities, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. JTRIG, or the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group, is part of British spy agency GCHQ, and was first revealed publicly in documents leaked by exiled NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden. A newly published document dating from 2011, which Business Insider has been unable to independently verify, appears to shed more light on the secretive group's activities. In one section, the document lists a number of the tactics that JTRIG staff have employed. These include:
- Uploading YouTube videos containing “persuasive” communications (to discredit, promote distrust, dissuade, deter, delay or disrupt)
- Setting up Facebook groups, forums, blogs and Twitter accounts that encourage and monitor discussion on a topic (to discredit, promote distrust, dissuade, deter, delay or disrupt)
- Establishing online aliases/personalities who support the communications or messages in YouTube videos, Facebook groups, forums, blogs etc
- Establishing online aliases/personalities who support other aliases
- Sending spoof e-mails and text messages from a fake person or mimicking a real person (to discredit, promote distrust, dissuade, deceive, deter, delay or disrupt)
- Providing spoof online resources such as magazines and books that provide inaccurate information (to disrupt, delay, deceive, discredit, promote distrust, dissuade, deter or denigrate/degrade)
- Providing online access to uncensored material (to disrupt)
- Sending instant messages to specific individuals giving them instructions for accessing uncensored websites
- Setting up spoof trade sites (or sellers) that may take a customer’s money and/or send customers degraded or spoof products (to deny, disrupt, degrade/denigrate, delay, deceive, discredit, dissuade or deter)
- Interrupting (i.e., filtering, deleting, creating or modifying) communications between real customers and traders (to deny, disrupt, delay, deceive, dissuade or deter)
- Taking over control of online websites (to deny, disrupt, discredit or delay)
- Denial of telephone and computer service (to deny, delay or disrupt)
- Hosting targets’ online communications/websites for collecting SIGINT (to ;disrupt, delay, deter or deny)
- Contacting host websites asking them to remove material (to deny, disrupt, delay, dissuade or deter)
These techniques are deployed against a number of law enforcement
targets, including suspects believed to be engaged in "online credit
card fraud and child exploitation." It also co-operates with other
domestic British law enforcement agencies, and helps "[provide] evidence
for judicial outcomes" and monitoring domestic terrorist groups. The documents also go into detail about psychological research that
could be used to help promote JTRIG's goals. "Theories and research in
the field of social psychology may prove particularly useful for
informing JTRIG's effects and online HUMINT operations," one document
says, identifying topics including "conformity," "obedience," and
"psychological profiling" as "particularly relevant for social influence."
In short: The documents — if accurate — demonstrate how the British
spy agency uses sophisticated psychological techniques to try and shape
the flow of information online to achieve its strategic goals. When reached for comment, a GCHQ spokesperson provided Business Insider with the following statement:
It is longstanding policy that
we do not comment on intelligence matters. Furthermore, all of GCHQ's
work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy
framework, which ensures that our activities are authorised, necessary
and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight, including from
the Secretary of State, the Interception and Intelligence Services
Commissioners and the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.
All our operational processes rigorously support this position. In
addition, the UK's interception regime is entirely compatible with the
European Convention on Human Rights.
Pentagon spent millions studying how
to influence social media
The Pentagon’s research lab has funded dozens of studies concerning the use of social media, the Guardian reported on Tuesday, raising further questions about what kind of data is of interest to governments around the globe.
Just days after a report published by researchers at Facebook revealed that users of the social media site had been manipulated for science, Ben Quinn and James Ball at the Guardian wrote this week that DARPA — the Pentagon-run Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — has in one way or another funded several studies recently that set out to explore that social networking site, as well as users of Twitter, Pinterest, Kickstarter and others.
The journalists’ report stems from a list of publications that went live on DARPA’s site late last month concerning its Social Media in Strategic Communications, or SMISC, program.
“The general goal of the Social Media in Strategic Communication (SMISC) program is to develop a new science of social networks built on an emerging technology base,” a statement there reads. “Through the program, DARPA seeks to develop tools to support the efforts of human operators to counter misinformation or deception campaigns with truthful information.”
From there, visitors to the site can view any of dozens of studies from researchers at the likes of the University of Southern California, IBM or Georgia Tech Research Institute who have relied either fully or partially on Pentagon money to conduct social media studies.
According to the journalists, the projects funded by the federal agency run the gamut of social media and include a number of studies sure to raise a few eyebrows. Formed in 1958, DARPA has been instrumental in the Pentagon's development of drones, robotics and even the internet.
“While some elements of the multi-million dollar project might raise a wry smile – research has included analysis of the tweets of celebrities such as Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, in an attempt to understand influence on Twitter – others have resulted in the buildup of massive datasets of tweets and additional types social media posts,” the Guardian reported.
“The project list includes a study of how activists with the Occupy movement used Twitter as well as a range of research on tracking internet memes and some about understanding how influence behavior (liking, following, retweeting) happens on a range of popular social media platforms like Pinterest, Twitter, Kickstarter, Digg and Reddit.”
Responding to the Guardian’s request for comment, DARPA defended the lengthy list of social media studies.
“Social media is changing the way people inform themselves, share ideas, and organize themselves into interest groups, including some that aim to harm the United States,” the Guardian quotes an agency spokesperson as saying. “DARPA supports academic research that seeks to understand some of these dynamics through analyses of publicly available discussions conducted on social media platforms.”
Revelations concerning DARPA’s role in these studies comes only days after the researchers involved in the controversial Facebook report publically apologized for manipulating the posts that appeared on users’ news feeds to see how emotions can carry across the web. “The goal of all of our research at Facebook is to learn how to provide a better service,” Facebook staffer and researcher Adam Kramer wrote.
On the Pentagon’s part, DARPA told the Guardian that the studies it has funded are essential to US defense interests.
Non-Governmental Organizations in Armenia
During
the Soviet era in Armenia, there were virtually no non-governmental
organizations (NGOs). After the devastating earthquake of December 1988
and during the years of the war in Artsakh (Karabagh), NGOs began to
form and were heavily involved with relief and humanitarian efforts. The
government of Armenia was unable to cope with the dire situation
resulting from the earthquake and the war, and therefore had to accept
the active participation of civil society organizations (CSOs).
Alongside humanitarian aid, major international organizations and NGOs
started contributing to the development of the local non-government
sector. Major Armenian organizations from the diaspora also provided
humanitarian aid and contributed greatly to the reconstruction process.
The focus of these new NGOs was on refugees, women, children, the
elderly, and the disabled, but their activities were somewhat limited.
Their inability to meet the growing demand for emergency services and
operations, for example, was due to a lack of local NGO skills,
knowledge, and capabilities, and the absence of an appropriate legal
framework. This period can be considered the first stage in the
formation of local NGOs.
Even though most of the NGOs were located in Yerevan, local NGOs began emerging in the marzes (provinces),
too, and implementing projects in education, health, culture, community
development, and income generation. In 1997, the number of local NGOs
passed 500. By 2001, data from the state register showed that 2,585 NGOs
were officially registered. In 2010, the state register reported 45
international NGOs and 5,700 local NGOs. However, out of the total
number of local NGOs registered, only 15 percent can be considered
operational; most in that percentage are small outfits that are not
active, and some have vague and obscure missions. The following are the
mission statements of a few such NGOs:
–The main goal of the organization is to participate actively in the social and legal life of the country in order to promote a free and safe life for the youth.–The main goals of the organization are to develop art and psychology and to form civil society.–To organize and collect all the recipes of Armenian national cuisine and publish it. To participate in international contests, seminars, and meetings.Table 1 presents a list of operational NGOs and their fields of activities, although not all are necessarily active.
International NGOs can be classified under the same categories as
local NGOs, but have two additional categories—(1) infrastructure
development and construction, and (2) capacity building and technical
assistance for local CSOs, self-governing bodies, and community
councils. A survey conducted by World Learning revealed that in the 1990’s, 70
percent of NGO leaders were women. However, by 2001, 58 percent of NGO
leaders were men, and by 2009, the percentage of male NGO leaders had
increased to 63. The shift might have occurred as men came to view NGOs
as a job opportunity and a means to further their careers. Yet, while in 2004, approximately 75 international NGOs were
operating in Armenia, that number has since decreased. The reason for
this decline may be the stable economic growth seen in Armenia in 2006
and 2007.
Government involvement
The gradual increase in the number of international NGOs in Armenia
and the corresponding need to regulate the activities of all types of
CSOs led to the Armenian government adopting its first Law on Civil
Society Organizations in 1996. The law encouraged international NGOs to
shift their activities from emergency response to development, the
protection of human rights, and enhancing the capacity of local NGOs.
The law states that Armenia recognizes the crucial role of NGOs in the
development of civil society and aims to promote the establishment of
NGOs as legal entities. The government has also passed decrees,
regulations, memorandums, and agreements related to cooperation with
NGOs, and formed institutional bodies and units on community and
national levels.
Voluntarism
When interacting with society, NGOs in Armenia, in comparison to NGOs
in the Armenian Diaspora, use an informal and less structured process
for volunteering. NGOs in Armenia also have greater issues with
volunteer mismanagement; sporadic volunteer recruitment; lack of skills
assessment, orientation, and training for volunteers; and recognizing
volunteer contributions. Engaging volunteers in long-term regular
commitments, instead of ad hoc projects, could better utilize this
important resource.
Because voluntarism for society was not a common practice during the
Soviet era, there is a need to widely publicize the value of
volunteerism to get more people interested. Presently this important
human resource is underutilized by NGOs in Armenia. NGOs should realize
the expectations of the volunteer in order to retain their involvement
and commitment over time. A non-profit organization with a strong and
committed volunteer base is also more likely to attract new funds.
Democratic governance
The internal democratic governance of NGOs in Armenia is another
issue that needs to be addressed. NGOs have developed written policies
for democratic governance, but often do not follow these policies. They
hold elections to select their internal leadership, yet the rotation
rate of such leadership is low. Typically, the founders of NGOs hold
their positions for a long time, which affects the formation of an
independent Board of Directors.
While most Armenian NGOs have bylaws and constitutions that outline
their governance mechanisms, it sometimes seems as though these
mechanisms are developed only to get the required permits and to attract
new funds, rather than from a genuine interest in democratic
management. Members are also often excluded from decision-making
processes. Unless NGOs embrace democratic procedures into their regular
operations, they will not be able to establish a credible reputation in
the community.
Funding sources
Financial sustainability is one of the main challenges that local
NGOs in Armenia face. It is this challenge that limits their capacity
for impact and distorts the image of civil society as a financially
dependent sector. It is necessary to diversify funding sources by
fostering partnerships with a full variety of potential funders, whether
they are individuals, corporations, or governments. NGOs in Armenia
undertake fundraising activities through various events, exhibitions,
concerts, and other activities. However, the majority of NGOs have
difficulty with fundraising because they lack experience in fundraising
methods, basic marketing, and financial management skills.
The activities of Armenian NGOs are heavily reliant on external
funding. Some donor organizations work directly with NGOs, while others
operate on a bilateral or multilateral basis. The Armenian Diaspora also
assists the local NGO sector by allocating funds or providing in-kind
assistance. Many NGOs believe that if donor organizations leave Armenia,
the scope of their activities will be curtailed and they will become
non-operational due to a lack of funding.
The Civil Society Fund is one of several programs supported by the
World Bank, which has provided grants since 1999 to NGOs and other CSOs
in Armenia. The grants support activities related to civic engagement,
and focuses on empowering people who have been excluded from society’s
decision-making processes. The individual grants are between $8,000 and
$10,000.
Today’s unfavorable legislative framework related to donations to
non-profit organizations does not provide the NGO sector with an
opportunity to acquire alternative financing. Therefore, limited and
unsustainable funding from donors and the government make the NGO sector
more dependent, which in turns affects their independence and
sustainability. Furthermore, the Armenian business sector does not
invest in NGO development. (If it does, the investment is limited to a
one-time project or event-based charitable contributions.) Often NGOs
are forced to accept funding for projects that are not in line with
their mission, values, or principles; the project requirements are often
determined by the donor’s agenda, and this greatly affects credibility
of the organization. Armenia’s state budget allocates some funds for
NGOs on a competitive basis.
Lack of transparency and accountability is another issue facing NGOs,
which generally do not produce and disseminate annual reports and
financial statements. The majority of NGOs claim that their financial
information is publicly available; yet, on closer inspection, it becomes
clear that they rarely report to their beneficiaries when it comes to
the finances and the quality of their work. The majority of Armenian
NGOs think that the preparation of reports requires additional financial
expenditure. Reporting of finances and activities would improve the
public’s perception of NGOs.
Effectiveness
One of the underlying causes of civil society’s weak effect on policy
and social issues is that NGOs have failed to extend their outreach and
rally greater support and higher levels of citizen participation in
their activities. Long-term financial insecurity stands as another hindrance to the
number of CSO’s in Armenia. NGOs have relied solely or predominantly on
international donor funding, without diversifying their income sources
or developing a long-term strategy to change this situation. As a
result, the instability of work in the NGO sector has not attracted
young specialists.
Increasing the professional skills of CSOs through trainings and
staff development could help strengthen the level of organizational
development and achievement. What is critical is focusing on staff
retention, as well as establishing a culture of information sharing and
knowledge transfer.
Fragmentation and competition among NGOs occur frequently, resulting
in an ineffective system for Armenian CSOs. Because of limited
coordination among NGOs, the sector lacks updated information and a
database of NGOs. This creates an inadequate picture of these
organizations and, consequently, gives people a poor perception of NGOs.
This also affects the ability of NGOs to influence the decision-making
process in the public sphere.
Some issues facing civil society include a short-term approach, lack
of strategic thinking, clustering around pro-government or opposition
groups, and poor organizational capacity. In order to increase citizen
participation and sponsorship, NGOs must realize that they should be
deriving their legitimacy from society, as they depend on popular
support. Increased transparency and accountability are vital to support
this action. This includes reporting to beneficiaries just as they do to
funders, and presenting an inclusive account of all aspects of their
activities. Improvements in these fields will contribute to increased
levels of trust with the civil society sector and the broader society,
and will foster increased citizen participation.
Source: http://armenianweekly.com/2014/01/15/ngo-armenia/
Do Certain NGOs Play the Role of a ‘Trojan
Horse’ in Armenia?
In an August 28 article titled “Could a Euromaidan happen on
Yerevan’s Republic Square?,” Vestnik Kavkaza magazine wrote: “After the
events of the last decade in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, experts
have started serious talks about color revolutions in the South
Caucasus.” Some analysts claim that the neo-cons in the West are angling
certain opposition media outlets, some NGOs and certain political
operatives to “open a new anti-Russian front in the Transcaucasus.”
Vestnik Kavkaza further wrote: “The term ‘democracy’ in Armenia has long been exploited for information wars. For quite a while, Washington has been hesitating whether to support President Serzh Sargsyan or put bets on the opposition. After the victory of Sargsyan in early presidential polls, it seemed that the power was in the hands of a politician loyal to Moscow. However, it is hard to say that Armenia has a pure pro-Russian position. Sargsyan himself is trying to gain the support of both Russia and the U.S.”
According to the Center for World Journalism and Research, the work of non-governmental organizations in Armenia has reached “a grand scale in recent years.” The Justice Ministry has registered thousands of NGOs. The magazine also noted: “After the collapse of the USSR, the Armenian Assembly of America, a structure related to the State Department … has been in the avant-garde of American influence in Armenia.”
The article pointed out the fact that millions of dollars have been dumped in Armenia to fund the activities of NGOs that are loyal to western donors’ agenda. “Open Society Institute, a Soros Fund founded in Armenia in 1997, has already spent over $24 million in Armenia. … The Investigative Journalists got $187,400, the Asparez Journalist Club got $58,650, and the Independent Network of Journalists got $83,200 for creating a negative image of Russian-Armenian cooperation.”
Back in 2012, I wrote: “Not all NGOs in Armenia are completely devoted to their stated missions. Some of them have raised several ‘red flags’ because of their activities. They may have been set-up to pursue hidden agendas that are detrimental to Armenia’s national security. … Given the fact that sizable segments of the Armenian society continue to be politically illiterate they can be easily influenced and misguided by individuals or non-governmental organizations that may present themselves as ‘well-meaning’ but in reality they can pursue hidden goals. They may sound very empathetic towards the general populace, yet they care less about Armenia and its future. They publicly discuss burning issues and gain political mileage, yet their main intention is not democracy as they claim to be.”
I further underlined: “Can Armenia mitigate the negative impact of certain NGOs that play the role of Trojan horses from within? It can and it should. Armenia Should Emulate Russia in Qualifying Foreign-Funded NGOs as ‘foreign agents.’ … It would be strongly effective if all NGOs whether engaged in political activities or humanitarian endeavors be required to publicly present every year the sources of their income and itemize their expenditures. Transparency at NGO level can be utilized as a great example to follow.”
A few years ago, in an interview with the REGNUM News Agency titled, “LOOK OUT! ETHNIC ESPIONAGE,” Igor Muradyan, a widely recognized expert on the politics of the Caucasus region, stressed: “First of all, you should take into account the continuing political struggle in Armenia and view the stance of the Armenian Assembly of America also in this light. I don’t think that ethnic NGOs enjoy full independence in the US, but the point is that the Armenian Assembly of America is more than dependent. Even more, the Assembly is functionally dependent. The Assembly directors and employees don’t just look down on Armenia’s political class and leaders; they look down on them with disdain.”
He elaborated: “In 2001 the Assembly’s board decreed ‘to fight Armenian nationalism.’ This implies suppression of any instance of patriotism, especially over the Karabakh problem and Armenian-Turkish relations. … Gathering information on the state of the armed forces of Armenia, including armaments, information on senior officers, on the import of military hardware (invoice numbers, payment terms, transportation routes), receiving analytical notes on the fighting capacity of the Armenian army, information and assessment of typical conflicts inside the military command, the concerns and plans of different groups in the military circles; gathering information on the leaders and activists of political parties, the mass media and political leaders of Armenia, including economic interests, ties with foreign countries.”
He concluded: “Of certain interest is the impression I got personally from such contacts. Strange but true: Assembly representatives get openly malicious and bilious over the fact that the Armenian armed forces are highly capable of discharging many combat operations on their own. Would they be more comfortable if the army of their ‘historical homeland’ had other characteristics and was like the armies of some other states? Altogether incompetent, the Assembly representatives were as much annoyed to know that Armenia is not a perishing country and is successfully developing economically.”
Many Armenia-based NGOs are well-organized and genuinely transparent, and continue making transformational contributions to Armenia’s present and future. Armenian society can achieve optimum results through social, political, spiritual and economic activism. There is no question that civil society in Armenia is in need of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
However, some NGOs can prove to be a curse if they are not regulated properly and their activities watched closely.
Source: http://www.armenianlife.com/2014/09/03/do-certain-ngos-play-the-role-of-a-trojan-horse-in-armenia/
A Distorted Media Mirror
When Armenian attained independence, many Diasporan-Armenian
organizations and experienced journalists moved to Yerevan to "liberate"
the bland Soviet-style news media and restore its original mission. The
newspapers, radio and TV broadcasting improved dramatically, in terms
of formatting design, news gathering, reporting and above all,
commenting freely. This much was a patriotic contribution, which
Diaspora Armenians brought to Armenia.
But in a parallel rush, major powers introduced their own outlets, of course, to serve their own political interests. While the newspapers owned and operated by Armenian organizations have encountered funding challenges -- consequently suffering in quality -- foreign-funded news outlets flourish and are run professionally. George Orwell's Big Brother is omnipresent globally, tending its business and has not spared Armenia.
Open Society Foundation, Radio Liberty and other agencies operate freely in Armenia and common sense will dictate that they don't care about the well being of the Armenian people nor the problems facing Armenia. They have recruited professional journalists, writers and commentators to toot their own horn. For example, the Open Society Forum could feign to promote democracy in Europe and in Third World countries but in the end, it serves a greater political design.
The Open Society Forum is the brainchild of billionaire George Soros, who escaped tyranny in Hungary and made a fortune in the US. During the Bush-Cheney Administration, he demonstrably confronted the US administration in its foreign policy objectives. But in the meantime, his organization trained some youth and sent them to Ukraine and Georgia -- and certainly to other parts of the world -- to organize the Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution, a feat that the US military power could not have achieved so easily.
Mr. Soros is entitled to use his money to spread his ideas around the world but he is not entitled to play with the destiny of the Armenian people who have suffered so much from major power rivalries, in their history. The writers and commentators of these agencies may be sitting in Yerevan and Karabagh, but the brain may be on the remote control in Prague or in Washington. The controlled news media does not operate in isolation -- and no matter what lofty ideal it claims to pursue -- it is part and parcel of the overall strategy of a major power.
We can easily make the connection with all the well-oiled religious sects, which penetrate like rodents in the fabric of the society in Armenia to decimate and to disorient the population. One treacherous act is to brainwash the youth to refuse to bear arms under the guise of conscientious objection, when Armenia is at war with its neighbors -- not of its own choosing.
To cite a salient example, trading Armenia's security against NATO's objectives in the Caucasus we may refer to an article in lragir.am, an outlet funded by Open Society Forum. The article is entitled "Serious Geopolitical Prospect for Javakhk," under the byline of Hakob Badalyan, a prominent political commentator.
Javakhk is an Armenian-populated region of Georgia. Historically it has changed hands between Georgia and Armenia. Currently more than half of the region is populated by Armenians; in cities like Akhatsikhe and Ninotsminda, Armenians account for 94.3 percent and 95.8 percent, respectively. The region was deliberately mismanaged and left economically depressed by Tbilisi authorities to force Armenians out of the area, fearful that Armenians would one day ask for autonomy or independence.
Until 2007, the city of Akhalkalak was home to a Russian military base, which provided jobs and security for Armenians in the region. Moscow precipitously moved out the base, before even its deadline in the treaty, leaving the Armenians to the mercy of the hostile Georgian government. Tbilisi's harassment and Russia's reckless move satisfied, to a certain measure, the Georgian goal of the government, as many destitute Armenians migrated to Russia for jobs and for security.
Russia went to war with Georgia to give independence to South Ossetia and Abkhazia while the destinies of Javakhk and Ajaria were left in the hands of the Tbilisi government. President Saakashvili jailed human rights activist Vahakn Chakhalian and implemented policies to force the people out or to assimilate them under the guise of teaching them the Georgian language. Despite a punishing war with Russia and despite a regime change, the new government in Tbilisi is looking for NATO presence on its territory, if not outright membership.
Armenians have enjoyed the "benefits" of having a NATO member in the Turkish border and now this writer is hailing a NATO move into the heartland of Armenians in Javakhk, as he writes: "NATO may empower itself with new tools of cooperation with non-member countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. And it may mean that the North Atlantic Alliance will receive a possibility or prospect for being present in Georgia, though the latter is not a member. In this respect, Georgian military base in Akhalkalak has strategic importance because it is close to the Russian base in Armenia, is located in a place where Russian provocation against Georgia are probable, close to the conflict area of Artsakh which is one of the potential places of destabilization of the region."
First NATO's interference on the Southern Russian underbelly is the most flagrant provocation, and also, the writer should know better that even Washington blamed Saakashvili for the provocation, which triggered the 2008 war. In a shortsighted conclusion, the writer jubilantly welcomes NATO's extension in the region as a "stabilizing factor," exactly at the moment when the defense ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey had been meeting in Nakhichevan to plan war games and tighten the noose around Armenia at NATO's behest.
The conclusion is more ludicrous than the article itself as it states, "It would be interesting to observe the reactions of Russia, Javakhk and Armenia to the Georgian military base, who will torpedo the process full of prospects for regional balance for the sake of security of Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk and what the force will be."
This concept fits in and complements the recent proposal by Ambassador James Warlick to introduce US Peacekeeping forces in Karabagh. Adding insult to injury, the Open Society Forum has a hypocritical disclaimed at the bottom of the article, which reads, "The opinions and analyses expressed in these sections are those of the authors and are not approved by OSF-Armenia or its Board."
When Open Society Forum cuts the payroll check of the writer, at least it is disingenuous to make such claims. Hagop Badalian is a better-qualified writer. He deserves a more dignified job than peddling NATO wares in Armenia through a distorted media mirror.
But in a parallel rush, major powers introduced their own outlets, of course, to serve their own political interests. While the newspapers owned and operated by Armenian organizations have encountered funding challenges -- consequently suffering in quality -- foreign-funded news outlets flourish and are run professionally. George Orwell's Big Brother is omnipresent globally, tending its business and has not spared Armenia.
Open Society Foundation, Radio Liberty and other agencies operate freely in Armenia and common sense will dictate that they don't care about the well being of the Armenian people nor the problems facing Armenia. They have recruited professional journalists, writers and commentators to toot their own horn. For example, the Open Society Forum could feign to promote democracy in Europe and in Third World countries but in the end, it serves a greater political design.
The Open Society Forum is the brainchild of billionaire George Soros, who escaped tyranny in Hungary and made a fortune in the US. During the Bush-Cheney Administration, he demonstrably confronted the US administration in its foreign policy objectives. But in the meantime, his organization trained some youth and sent them to Ukraine and Georgia -- and certainly to other parts of the world -- to organize the Orange Revolution and the Rose Revolution, a feat that the US military power could not have achieved so easily.
Mr. Soros is entitled to use his money to spread his ideas around the world but he is not entitled to play with the destiny of the Armenian people who have suffered so much from major power rivalries, in their history. The writers and commentators of these agencies may be sitting in Yerevan and Karabagh, but the brain may be on the remote control in Prague or in Washington. The controlled news media does not operate in isolation -- and no matter what lofty ideal it claims to pursue -- it is part and parcel of the overall strategy of a major power.
We can easily make the connection with all the well-oiled religious sects, which penetrate like rodents in the fabric of the society in Armenia to decimate and to disorient the population. One treacherous act is to brainwash the youth to refuse to bear arms under the guise of conscientious objection, when Armenia is at war with its neighbors -- not of its own choosing.
To cite a salient example, trading Armenia's security against NATO's objectives in the Caucasus we may refer to an article in lragir.am, an outlet funded by Open Society Forum. The article is entitled "Serious Geopolitical Prospect for Javakhk," under the byline of Hakob Badalyan, a prominent political commentator.
Javakhk is an Armenian-populated region of Georgia. Historically it has changed hands between Georgia and Armenia. Currently more than half of the region is populated by Armenians; in cities like Akhatsikhe and Ninotsminda, Armenians account for 94.3 percent and 95.8 percent, respectively. The region was deliberately mismanaged and left economically depressed by Tbilisi authorities to force Armenians out of the area, fearful that Armenians would one day ask for autonomy or independence.
Until 2007, the city of Akhalkalak was home to a Russian military base, which provided jobs and security for Armenians in the region. Moscow precipitously moved out the base, before even its deadline in the treaty, leaving the Armenians to the mercy of the hostile Georgian government. Tbilisi's harassment and Russia's reckless move satisfied, to a certain measure, the Georgian goal of the government, as many destitute Armenians migrated to Russia for jobs and for security.
Russia went to war with Georgia to give independence to South Ossetia and Abkhazia while the destinies of Javakhk and Ajaria were left in the hands of the Tbilisi government. President Saakashvili jailed human rights activist Vahakn Chakhalian and implemented policies to force the people out or to assimilate them under the guise of teaching them the Georgian language. Despite a punishing war with Russia and despite a regime change, the new government in Tbilisi is looking for NATO presence on its territory, if not outright membership.
Armenians have enjoyed the "benefits" of having a NATO member in the Turkish border and now this writer is hailing a NATO move into the heartland of Armenians in Javakhk, as he writes: "NATO may empower itself with new tools of cooperation with non-member countries like Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. And it may mean that the North Atlantic Alliance will receive a possibility or prospect for being present in Georgia, though the latter is not a member. In this respect, Georgian military base in Akhalkalak has strategic importance because it is close to the Russian base in Armenia, is located in a place where Russian provocation against Georgia are probable, close to the conflict area of Artsakh which is one of the potential places of destabilization of the region."
First NATO's interference on the Southern Russian underbelly is the most flagrant provocation, and also, the writer should know better that even Washington blamed Saakashvili for the provocation, which triggered the 2008 war. In a shortsighted conclusion, the writer jubilantly welcomes NATO's extension in the region as a "stabilizing factor," exactly at the moment when the defense ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey had been meeting in Nakhichevan to plan war games and tighten the noose around Armenia at NATO's behest.
The conclusion is more ludicrous than the article itself as it states, "It would be interesting to observe the reactions of Russia, Javakhk and Armenia to the Georgian military base, who will torpedo the process full of prospects for regional balance for the sake of security of Armenia, Artsakh and Javakhk and what the force will be."
This concept fits in and complements the recent proposal by Ambassador James Warlick to introduce US Peacekeeping forces in Karabagh. Adding insult to injury, the Open Society Forum has a hypocritical disclaimed at the bottom of the article, which reads, "The opinions and analyses expressed in these sections are those of the authors and are not approved by OSF-Armenia or its Board."
When Open Society Forum cuts the payroll check of the writer, at least it is disingenuous to make such claims. Hagop Badalian is a better-qualified writer. He deserves a more dignified job than peddling NATO wares in Armenia through a distorted media mirror.
Methods and goals of anti-Russian media in Armenia
It's no secret that the Armenian media space contains pro-Western, anti-Russian mass media. There are two ways to spread anti-Russian information, and the aforementioned media are divided into two categories. The first category includes the mass media which openly, strictly and even thoughtlessly criticize all things connected with Russia. That is why they are not taken seriously even in Armenia, and their work is like a proverb – the dog’s barking is for the wind to carry. The second category of the mass media treats its mission more seriously and is very dangerous. In such media projects, criticism of Russia is added to criticism of the native government, criminal stories and the gutter press. If we exclude the gutter press aspect, the Armenian radio “Freedom” belongs to the second category.
The Armenian media – Azatutyun – is financed directly, but unofficially, by the American embassy in Armenia. And the consequences are clear. The edition works solidly, steps are highly coordinated, and information is well-thought through. Almost all the correspondents of “Freedom” go to various conferences on one and the same day and ask one and the same question. Usually the question touches on Russia’s activities or reaction to a certain problem which often has nothing in common with Armenia. It means the edition fulfills a clear plan which hasn’t been developed by it. “Freedom” floods the Armenian media space with false information to promote an atmosphere of mistrust of Russia and all its projects in the region.
After Serge Sargsyan’s statement on intention to join the Eurasian projects of Moscow, the activity of the aforementioned media had improved. Most of the anti-Russian articles and reports are absurd. For example, the authors state that a possible Armenian-Azerbaijani military conflict will be beneficial for Russia. Information on Moscow’s plans to “give away Karabakh” can be seen in publications of the mass media in the last 20 years. In January 2014 there was information that a group came from Russia and jabbed residents of Yerevan with HIV-contaminated syringes. “We don’t comment on rubbish,” the police of Armenia told Vestnik Kavkaza.
Now the radio is very concerned about the situation surrounding the status of the Armenian language and violations of the country's Language Law. Among such violations, according to Freedom radio, is the fact that a number of Russian-language international conferences are being held in Armenia. According to the law, all public events should be held with simultaneous translation into Armenian. The radio station's official website is now full of anti-Russian comments concerning this topic provided by various experts. The same is happening on air.
The radio has also paid special attention to the Rossiya Segodnya's chief executive Dmitry Kiselyov's remarks made in the Armenian parliament. Kiselyov and Armenian lawmakers who were taking part in the event, are still being stigmatized and accused of all possible and impossible transgressions. This also promotes an atmosphere of distrust and fear.
The last event, which caused an immediate reaction in the pro-Western media, was the Armenian president's visit to Georgia. It's quite clear that the massive Russian Railways' project launched in the region is unfavorable to the United States. That is why such media could not hide their delight when the president failed to reach an agreement with the Georgian authorities. According to such authors, there is now no chance that the railway connection between Georgia and Abkhazia can be resumed since Georgia agreed to join the European customs space. It seems like no comment is necessary.
Source: Methods and goals of anti-Russian media in Armenia | Vestnik Kavkaza
George Soros Meets With Armenian Non-Profits in New York
After brief introductions, George Soros spoke candidly about his hope that the roundtable would aid in the free exchange of ideas about what can be done in Armenia to strengthen civil society, an overarching goal for Soros’ non-profit organization, the Open Society Institute (OSI). Soros underlined his belief that establishing good cooperation with diasporan Armenian organizations was important for OSI to accomplish its work in Armenia. “Our constituency is Armenia’s society in general, and I know the diaspora has influence in this regard,” he said.
OSI and the Soros foundations network-which began in 1984-spent more than $400 million worldwide in 2006 on improving policy and helping people to live in open, democratic societies. OSI works on issues ranging from human rights, to access to education, to freedom of information. Since 1997, OSI Assistance Foundation-Armenia, the Armenia-based Soros foundation, has spent $20 million in developing grassroots programs for Armenians.
Soros introduced the Executive Director of OSI Armenia, Larisa Minasyan, who elaborated on the media, arts, education and justice programs that the organization has been able to successfully implement. She explained that the organization received funding from the British and Dutch governments, in addition to annual funds from Soros’ Armenian foundation. “Our goal is to establish democracy in a diverse way,” Minasian said. “We are trying to bring systematic change in the various fields and we are achieving success in different ways.”
OSI Armenia board member, Lucig Danielian outlined some of the objectives of the organization and their approach to the problems facing Armenia, “We feel it is about empowering people and giving them the skills and the jumpstart, and the funding when required, encouraging change from below.”
Vigen Sargsyan, Board member of OSI Armenia and the World Bank Yerevan, explained the barriers to democratic reform in Armenia via the media, “The media [in Armenia] today, suffers from homogeneity and it is state-dominated, which doesn’t allow for alternatives.”
Various individuals spoke about the interconnection of democracy and economic development, and how the role of each could contribute to a sustainable and strong Armenia.
The frank discussion touched upon the problems of migration from Armenia, the sensitivity of Armenia’s relationships with its neighbors, the continuing economic blockade of Armenia’s borders, and the question of corruption in Armenia’s public and private sectors.
Soros acknowledged that the Armenian scenario is unique, since a strong, diverse diaspora can contribute to reform in Armenia, which is not the case in other Eurasian nations. He concluded on a hopeful note, sharing a personal anecdote about his own native country of Hungary, which experienced a short period of freedom in the 1950′s only to be quickly suppressed by Soviet forces. “I will tell you that the 1956 Hungarian Revolution came into fruition in 1989. No one could have imagined that,” Soros said.
AGBU President Berge Setrakian thanked Soros for his participation in the exchange and shared some of his personal thoughts. “This process is only beginning and we will certainly continue this dialogue. Hearing about the successes of the Soros foundation in its efforts to build civil society in Armenia, we are encouraged to explore new possibilities. As the world’s leading Armenian non-profit organization, it is AGBU’s responsibility to seek out effective ways to help Armenians and Armenia become a strong and stable nation,” Setrakian said.
Russian military to order major research to counter ‘color revolutions’
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu has told reporters that the
military will sponsor a major research of coups conducted through mass
protest – so called ‘color revolutions’ – to prevent the situations that
Russia faced in 1991 and 1993.
“Some people say that the military should not be involved in
political processes, some say the direct opposite. We will order
a study on the phenomenon of color revolutions and the military’s
role in their prevention,” Shoigu told the participants of
the Army-2015 political forum Friday. “We have no right to allow the repetitions of the collapses
of 1991 and 1993,” he said. “How to do it is another
story, but it is clear that we must deal with the situation. We
must understand how to prevent this and how to teach the younger
generation so that it supported the calm and gradual development
of our country.”
The minister added that the consequences of color revolutions can
be now observed in many Arab nations and also in Serbia. He also
said that the Ukrainian crisis that started in 2014 also was
“a major tragedy in the row of color revolutions.” In March this year the head of Russia’s Security Council, Nikolai
Patrushev promised that this body would develop a detailed plan
of action aimed at preventing color revolutions or any other
attempts of forceful change of lawfully elected authorities
through mass street protest. He also said that the Security
Council had prepared a list of proposed measures that could
negate the possible threat, including some steps against
“network protest activities” and propaganda work against
“romantic revolutionary stereotype.”
Also in March, President Vladimir Putin addressed the dangers of
color revolutions in his speech to the Interior Ministry.
“The extremists’ actions become more complicated,” he
said. “We are facing attempts to use the so called ‘color
technologies’ in organizing illegal street protests to open
propaganda of hatred and strife on social networks.”
In the same month, the Interior Ministry drafted a bill
containing amendments to the law on rallies that covered car
protests and sit-ins. The ministry experts said that the move
would circumvent legal ambiguity in the interest of society as a
whole. In November, Putin blasted color revolutions as a main tool used
by destructive forces in the geopolitical struggle. “In the
modern world, extremism is used as a geopolitical tool for
redistribution of spheres of interest. We can see the tragic
consequences of the wave of the so-called color revolutions, the
shock experienced by people in the countries that went through
the irresponsible experiments of hidden, or sometimes brute and
direct interference with their lives,” the Russian leader
said.
In January, a group of Russian conservative activists, uniting
war veterans, nationalist bikers and pro-Christian politicians
launched an “anti-Maidan” political movement in Moscow to oppose
any attempts to thwart the stable development of the country. Its
first rallies were held on the same days as some anti-government
protests and according to law enforcers the conservatives
outnumbered the pro-revolution activists by almost 10-fold.
Russian security doctrine to be adjusted after Arab Spring, Ukraine turmoil - official
The head of Russia’s Security Council has promised that the
authorities will adjust the nation’s security doctrine after learning
the lessons of the latest political crises in the Middle East and
Ukraine. “In order to update the basic concepts of national
securitythe council has ordered to begin the work on making
corrections to the main strategic plans – the National Security
Strategy of the Russian Federation to year 2020 and the
Informational Security Strategy,” Nikolai Patrushev said in
an article published Wednesday in the Defense Ministry’s daily
newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
He added that the necessity of such actions has arisen after the
so-called Arab Spring (a wave of violent mass protests that led
to overthrowing of governments and leaders in several Middle East
countries in 2011-12), the wars in Syria and Iraq and also the
situation in and around Ukraine. Patrushev said that these events demonstrated the tendency for
security threats to shift from the military sphere into the
informational space. “As leading nations of the world fight
for their interests they typically use ‘non-direct action,’ the
population’s protest potential, radical and extremist groups and
also private military contractors,” Patrushev wrote.
He also noted the increasing aggressiveness of the United States
and NATO toward Russia, embodied in the beefing up of military
potential near Russian borders and the continuing deployment of
the global missile defense system. The Security Council is Russia’s top consultative body on
national security, and Nikolai Patrushev has headed the council
since 2008. Before that, he was the director of the Federal
Security Service for nine years.
In October 2014, Patrushev openly accused the United States of
playing a role in the current turmoil in Ukraine and the military
conflicts in Georgia and the Caucasus, saying these were direct
results of the anti-Russian policy of the US administration. He
also revealed in a press interview that intelligence analysts
established that American special services were executing an
anti-Russian program that dates back to the 1970s, and is based
on Zbigniew Brzezinski’s “strategy of weak spots,” the policy of
turning the opponent’s potential problems into full-scale crises.
In September 2014, President Vladimir Putin tasked senior
military and state officials with developing an updated military
doctrine that would meet the needs of changing global politics
and modern military challenges and the new dangers and threats,
in particular those manifested in the so-called Arab Spring, the
civil war in Syria and the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.
Source: http://rt.com/politics/256025-russia-security-doctrine-patrushev/
How foreign NGOs destroy Russia
Recently, the Federation Council
suggested introducing a "stop-list" for foreign NGOs in Russia that
either implement political tasks to the benefit of foreign states or finance Russian NGOs for the same purpose. The
issue of "political NGOs" has become relevant again lately. It was
about the story of Dynasty Foundation, which the Russian Justice
Ministry labeled as a "foreign agent". In addition, President Putin made a speech in the Public Chamber,
where he spoke about political NGOs, separating them from the part of
the "third sector" that deals with social problems. Let's
take a look at well-known political NGOs. Many of them do not work in
Russia officially anymore. However, there are organizations that still
work on the territory of the Russian Federation, such as The Council for International Research and Exchanges, or IREX.
The organization was created in 1968 to oversee exchange issues between the United States, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union within the scope of educational, scientific and socio-political programs. IREX really can hardly be called a "non-profit organization. Officially, the organization is registered as an independent foundation. In fact, the lion's share of its annual financial turnover - about $60 million - consists of funding from the USAID and the Office for Culture and Education of the US State Department.
The organization was created in 1968 to oversee exchange issues between the United States, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union within the scope of educational, scientific and socio-political programs. IREX really can hardly be called a "non-profit organization. Officially, the organization is registered as an independent foundation. In fact, the lion's share of its annual financial turnover - about $60 million - consists of funding from the USAID and the Office for Culture and Education of the US State Department.
Foreign NGOs work to destroy Russia from within
In some countries of the former Soviet
Union - Belarus, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan - the work of this NGO has
been officially banned "for anti-state and anti-government activities."
In Russia, IREX focuses on journalists and media. A recent report from
the organization about mass media in Russia is very eloquent: "We see an example of Kremlin's total control of national television stations and the press." On
this occasion, IREX has a "training of journalists" program in Russia,
so that they write "correct news" and provide information the "right
way." Generally, IREX targets humanitarian personnel in the
countries with "emerging democracies." That is, in fact, the
organization is preparing platforms for color revolutions, to establish US-loyal political regimes.
American Councils for International Education is another similar organization, funded by the US State Department. The fund was established in the first half of the 1970s, specifically to manage research and educational programs in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. In 2006, a US citizen of 27 years of age, James Matthew Dirmon, decided to improve his knowledge of the Russian language. American Councils for International Education sent him to the city of Vladimir. During his entire stay in Russia, Dirmon was collecting specific information, for example, about Russia's migration legislation. He studied and analyzed the appearance of interethnic conflicts in Russia and corruption in the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation.
The young man did not receive specific instructions of what he was actually doing. He went straight to the Migration Service in Vladimir and asked for a report on migration in the past five years. As a result, Dirmon was invited for an interview, where he said a lot about his work with American Councils, about the ties of the organization with diplomats and politicians in Russia and the former Soviet Union and about the interest of the organization in Russia's Far East and Siberia.
American Councils for International Education is another similar organization, funded by the US State Department. The fund was established in the first half of the 1970s, specifically to manage research and educational programs in Eastern Europe and Eurasia. In 2006, a US citizen of 27 years of age, James Matthew Dirmon, decided to improve his knowledge of the Russian language. American Councils for International Education sent him to the city of Vladimir. During his entire stay in Russia, Dirmon was collecting specific information, for example, about Russia's migration legislation. He studied and analyzed the appearance of interethnic conflicts in Russia and corruption in the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation.
The young man did not receive specific instructions of what he was actually doing. He went straight to the Migration Service in Vladimir and asked for a report on migration in the past five years. As a result, Dirmon was invited for an interview, where he said a lot about his work with American Councils, about the ties of the organization with diplomats and politicians in Russia and the former Soviet Union and about the interest of the organization in Russia's Far East and Siberia.
USA not the only country to promote its interests in Russia
The USA is not the only country that promotes its interests in Russia. The
UK invests for the same purposes too by introducing its own NGOs. For
example, there is the British Council working in Russia, a
non-ministerial department of the government of Great Britain. That is,
the gentlemen do not even hide that they are a public service. The
organization works to spread British culture in the world.
Noteworthy, the names of many employees of the British Council were put on the list of secret agents of British intelligence working abroad. It goes about the so-called "Tomlinson List." In Russia, there was only one office of the British Council left - in Moscow. Yet, the organization is much more active in Ukraine. The official goal is to teach Ukrainians English. However, a bit more than one thousand Ukrainian officers and employees of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry have taken part in "Peacekeeping English" program since 2008.
Separate political parties promote their interests in Russia via NGOs as well. The most straightforward one of them is the International Republican Institute. The head of the fund is Senator John McCain; the organization is financed by the Government and the Congress of the United States. Officially, the organization has no party affiliation, but most of the staff are members of the Republican Party. The organization says that its mission is to bring democracy to the world. The fund works with political parties, officials and state system of foreign countries.
In Russia, IRI works since 1992. The fund actively participated in the events of 1993 on the side of Yeltsin and his team, of course. During the Cold War, the fund was involved in several coups in Latin America. Generally speaking, the organization works to arrange color revolutions without hiding its goals. This is not surprising at all as its chief is Senator John McCain. He is definitely an enemy of Russia, but he is a straightforward man, who remains alien to subtle diplomacy.
The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a much talked-about organization. This is a fully politicized organization funded officially and publicly by US Congress. The NED is closely related to US foreign intelligence. In Russia, the NED is banned, but it still funds Russian NGOs. In 2014, Russian foreign agents received more than 40 million rubles from the NED. The money is transferred "to develop democracy and civil society to teach protest action techniques to politicians and public figures. Noteworthy, it is considered a crime in several countries to receive finance from the NED.
We can not but mention the Soros Foundation.
This structure, like NED, is widely known in Russia, although it has
not been working in Russia for years. More specifically, the work of
the Fund in Russia was discontinued in 2003. Yet, the fund created a
network of NGOs that now work without direct participation of the parent
organization, at least on an official level. From 2013 to 2015, the
Soros Foundation wired more than 250 million rubles on accounts of
"foreign agents" in Russia. This is only a small part of foreign
funds that invest in socio-political organizations in Russia. All of
them invest their funds to promote specific political and ideological
interests.
One
can see now that the "humanitarian work" of American and
British philanthropists leads to humanitarian catastrophes, rather than
achievements: think about the bombings of civilians in the Donbass and
the total collapse of the Ukrainian statehood. Therefore, developing
protective measures is a question of Russia's national security.
Source: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/01-07-2015/131184-foreign_ngo_russia-0/#
Source: http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/26602633.html
Ambassador Kovalenko Again Warns Armenia About the Dangers of Adopting Western Values
Armenia will put its national
security and independence at serious risk unless rejects “Western
values” to fully align itself with Russia, a former Russian ambassador
in Yerevan warned on Tuesday. Vyacheslav Kovalenko claimed that failure to make a “final”
geopolitical choice in favor of Russia could thrust the country into the
kind of crisis that has plagued Ukraine since the overthrow of a
pro-Russian government in Kiev.
“Armenia must make a choice because in order for the economy of a small country like Armenia to develop, it has to integrate, it has to join some integration structures,” Kovalenko told Armenian journalists in a video conference from Moscow. “And the choice here is stark. I think the situation will develop in such a way that we will require Armenia to make that choice.
“Armenia can’t endlessly balance [between rival foreign powers] in this complicated international situation. So a lot depends on Armenia’s historical choice: the future of the country, the future of the Armenian people and the future of Armenians in general.”
“Will Armenia remain an independent state with its own national policy, national interests and identity respected around the world?” continued the diplomat who headed the Russian mission in Yerevan until March 2013. “Will it embrace instead the Western values which … will exist as long as Western powers continue their aggressive policies?”
Echoing the official Russian line, Kovalenko claimed that the spread of those values was responsible for the Ukraine crisis. “It is very important that what is now happening in Ukraine, where such [conflicting] relationships have emerged between various segments of the population, is not repeated [in Armenia,]” he said.
“I think that the Armenians, who are one of the most ancient peoples in the world and outlived other peoples that are now non-existent, now live on thanks to right choices which they have always made at critical historical moments. Now is such a critical historical moment in which the Armenians must make a final choice for themselves.”
“Armenia must make a choice because in order for the economy of a small country like Armenia to develop, it has to integrate, it has to join some integration structures,” Kovalenko told Armenian journalists in a video conference from Moscow. “And the choice here is stark. I think the situation will develop in such a way that we will require Armenia to make that choice.
“Armenia can’t endlessly balance [between rival foreign powers] in this complicated international situation. So a lot depends on Armenia’s historical choice: the future of the country, the future of the Armenian people and the future of Armenians in general.”
“Will Armenia remain an independent state with its own national policy, national interests and identity respected around the world?” continued the diplomat who headed the Russian mission in Yerevan until March 2013. “Will it embrace instead the Western values which … will exist as long as Western powers continue their aggressive policies?”
Echoing the official Russian line, Kovalenko claimed that the spread of those values was responsible for the Ukraine crisis. “It is very important that what is now happening in Ukraine, where such [conflicting] relationships have emerged between various segments of the population, is not repeated [in Armenia,]” he said.
“I think that the Armenians, who are one of the most ancient peoples in the world and outlived other peoples that are now non-existent, now live on thanks to right choices which they have always made at critical historical moments. Now is such a critical historical moment in which the Armenians must make a final choice for themselves.”
Source: http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/26602633.html
