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