EPD in Armenia: second exploratory trip (January 2009)
Armenia
stormed the world headlines in March 2008 after peaceful protests on
the streets of Yerevan were violently dispersed by security forces.
Thousands of people led by presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian
rallied against the outcomes of what they considered flawed elections.
On 1 March 2008 police used lethal force against the opposition
supporters resulting in 10 protesters dead and hundreds wounded. A
state of emergency was declared and over 100 protesters and opposition
supporters were arrested and imprisoned. The Council of Europe issued 3
resolutions (1609, 1620 and 1643) condemning the March events and
calling for fair investigations and release of political prisoners.
The
increased interest in Armenia was very brief though and rather
exceptional for this Caucasian state. With a population of 3.2m and GDP
of $3400 this landlocked mountainous country is again hardly seen or
heard in the media, even though to this day, almost a year after the
March 2008 events, over 60 people remain in prison for expressing their
opinion. Civil society organisations and media are operating in an
environment of tacit self-censorship, lack of dialogue with public
institutions and waning support from the international community. The
general public lacks trust in the government and slips into apathy and
disbelief in positive changes. The government tries to find lost
legitimacy in fulfilling its obligations before the European
institutions.
The European Partnership for Democracy
accomplished two working visits to Armenia which was selected as the
first pilot country for the EPD fragile democracy funding. EPD experts
held consultations with a wide range of stakeholders – NGOs, donors,
media, international organisations, public institutions, political
parties, diplomatic missions, etc. – in order to better understand the
current state of affairs and accomplished two working visits to
Armenia. EPD's longer term goals in cooperating with all relevant actors for democratisation in Armenia are two-fold:
•
Facilitation of interaction between civil & political society, the
government and the democratic institutions in Armenia to strengthen the
functioning of the democratic system.
• High-level advocacy with
the EU institutions and EU Member States to raise more awareness of
Armenia's political situation and to foster a platform for Armenia's
political and civil society to become more structurally included in the
EU's financial instruments for democracy assistance.
In
December 2008 EPD announced a Call for Concept Notes with over 30 NGOs
submitting their ideas. EPD experts carried out extensive interviews
with 12 pre-selected NGOs in Yerevan in January 2009 in order to better
understand their background, needs and reasons behind the proposed
activities. Guidance in the preparation of full project proposals was
provided in order to increase relevance, impact and sustainability of
the future projects.
During the month of February evaluation of
submitted projects will take place and it is expected that a decision
on awarding the grants will be made in March 2009 with the project
activities commencing immediately afterwards. Projects will run for up
to 12 months and budget size is expected to be about €30,000 on average.
by Oleh Kyriyenko
Expert on the post-Soviet region