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Sat, 01 Mar 2008 22:15:54 GMT

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Armenian Opposition Announces Timeless Sitting Protests

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 20:10:07 GMT

Opposition supporters are dancing around the tents in the Freedom Square © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Following a rally which lasted several hours, starting at 15:00 which gathered dozens of thousands of supporters, Armenian opposition leaders announced a timeless sit down protest in the Freedom Square, in front of the Opera House. Nikol Pashinyan, making the announcement, demanded, that the mayor of Yerevan Yervand Zakharyan and the head of RA Police Hayk Harutyunyan send police in uniforms to ensure the security of protesters.

Earlier speeches were made by main opposition leaders and Levon Ter-Petrosian, claiming that the vote has been rigged. Interestingly, presidential candidate Artur Baghdasaryan's campaign manager Heghine Bisharyan also spoke (despite recent mutual offenses exchanged between Levon Ter-Petrossian and Artur Baghdasaryan). In her speech she declared, that Artur Baghdasaryan had always been with the nation and the ballot papers were being re-counted at all election districts, as a result of which “the number of votes of our candidates is increasing".

Rally attracted around 25,000 people at its peak - at around 4 p.m. During my last visit, when the sitting protest was declared, the amount of people had seriously decreased - there were 5000 people at most. However, the atmosphere was cheerful - tents could be seen here and there, and people were dancing to loud music.

Opposition rally in the Freedom Square © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Ter-Petrossian Speaking, Opposition rally in the Freedom Square © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

About 10 tents already set up in the Freedom Square © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Opposition supporters clapping and dancing in the Freedom Square © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog.

Ballot Stuffing - Mobile Phone Video

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 11:04:27 GMT

A reader of E-channel has sent in a video material, illustrating a case of ballot stuffing on the February 19 Presidential Elections.

We can see how a man is stuffing the ballot box, while the electoral commission members watch him without attempting to interfere or stop the illegal activity.

Source: Echannel.am

Armenian Opposition Protest the Election Results

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:05:21 GMT

Opposition Protest in front of Government Building © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Armenian opposition gathered more then 50 thousand supporters for a rally protesting the election results in front of Matenadaran today, closing the Mashtots avenue from Matenadaran till Nairi Cinema theater. Nikol Pashinyan, one of the most vocal opposition leaders, editor in-cheif of the Haykakan Zhamanak daily announced, that the opposition denounces the elections, and calls for a new round of elections. Presidential candidate, Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian in his speech characterized the elections as "shameful". He further called Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's victory the "victory of the criminal world, ....victory of Mher from Tokhmakh, Mouk from Mkhchyan, Nemets Rubo, Dodi Gago, Lfik Samo…” , naming the oligarchs supporting the Prime Minister, who according to preliminary data, has won the elections by more then 52 %.

The opposition then took the protestant for a long march through Yerevan, passing Mashtots, Amiryan avenues, short stop at the Government building. The march then passed through the Sakharov square, Republic street, passing by State Security Service hedquarters, Koryun street, trans-passing the Central Electoral Commission (CEC), which was heavily guarded, surrounded by major police forces. While the initial plan was to gather in front of the CEC and demand, that they recognize the elections invalid, the amount of police force around them apparently changed the mind of opposition leaders, so they instead moved to the Freedom Square in front of the Opera House, where there is a large crowd waiting for further instructions from the opposition leaders while I'm writing these lines.

It is still unclear what the further course of their actions will be. The authorities are obviously very well prepared for every scenario. However, from what I could see so far, it doesn't seem that the opposition are prepared for a direct confrontation. Let's wait and see.

UPDATE: After I left the opposition leaders had sent off the crowd, telling them to come back for another rally at 15:00 next day. Looks more like an attempt to cool down the frustrated voters, then anything else. Levon Ter-Petrossian has said he has a plan. It is somewhat hard to believe that he does. Let's wait and see, hopefully they won't do anything stupid. Hopefully Ter-Petrossian remembers 1996, and understands, as the Armenian Election Monitor 2008 rightly points out, that this is only a Deja Vu of "Ter-Petrossian’s equally disputed re-election in 1996 when tanks and soldiers were sent out onto the streets of Yerevan". If anything, Levon Ter-Petrossian can blame himself for what we have now in this country. It's time HE pays the price.

Opposition Protests, marching on Mashtots Avenue © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Opposition Protests , Marching © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Opposition Protests, passing through Sakharov Square © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Central Electoral Commission, Police forces well prepared © Photo by Artur Papyan, Yerevan, 2008

Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog.

1 million 669 thousand 114 citizens voted. Serzh Sargsyan is Leading, Officially

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:45:36 GMT

The elections signified by an incredible number of violations, are over. I spent the election day in the newsroom of the Echannel.am. Complaints and information on various violations kept pouring in. The situation was apparently several times worse in the Regions. Our journalists visited several sites of violations and noted the boldness with which those were being carried out: ballots stuff, voters intimidated, journalists hindered from their work. Reports from Hetq, Echannel, Armnifo, A1plus give me enough background to state, that the authorities most coldheartedly raped the concept of free and fair elections and might as well get away with it. Anyway, below is some official data on the outcome of elections from Echannel.am.

The president of the Central Electoral Commission Garegin Azatyan informed that in the elections of February 19 in 1913 polling stations from 1923 opened in Armenia voted about 1 million 669thousand 114 voters. The following is the breakdown of votes for all candidates:

Serzh Sargsyan -859 658 votes

Levon Ter Petrosyan – 349 781 votes

Arthur Baghdasaryan -271 698 votes

Vahan Hovhannisyan- 100 545 votes

Vazgen Manoukyan -20 930 votes

Tigran Karapetyan -9 747 votes

Artashes Geghamyan -7 458 votes

Arman Melikyan – 4 354 votes

Aram Harutyunyan 3 098 votes

International Media Neglecting Armenian Election?

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:04:07 GMT

With only six hours to go till the polling stations close in Armenia, the international media seem to be largely uninterested in the developments here, with very basic coverage of the elections only available from major international news agencies, as well as the BBC and Euronews.

The elections are largely described as a transfer of power from outgoing leader Robert Kocharyan to his ally and prime minister Serzh Sarksyan. All international media reports point to economic growth, as the main factor in favor of Serzh Sargsyan - described as the clear frontrunner, although some point to doubts about the validity of the polls indicating Prime Minister's high rating.

The BBC describes the Armenian elections as "fiercely-contested", resulting from the dramatic comeback of Armenia's former President Levon Ter-Petrosian as an opposition candidate.

Bloomberg is mostly concentrating on the possibility of street protests by the opposition over raising concerns that the vote may be rigged. The information service points to the fact, that Armenia is under pressure from U.S. and the European Union to strengthen its democracy at a time when it is receiving hundred of millions of dollars in aid, indicating, that there have already been charges against the authorities by the main opposition challenger Levon Ter-Petrossian of government attempts to control the vote and ensure Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's victory.

Reuters also notes, the opposition claims, that the campaign has been unfair, and predicts street protests, as in the case of previous elections in Armenia which "have been followed by mass opposition protests alleging ballot fraud. However, the news service notes the polls, which "give Sarksyan a lead over the rest of the field, led by former former speaker of parliament Artur Baghdasaryan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan, a former president who was forced to resign in 1998 but is now seeking a comeback, and quotes Sarksyan saying:"
If there is a second round I would prefer to fight against Levon Ter-Petrosyan".

Euronews is highlighting the fact, that "failure of the opposition to unite around a single candidate has boosted Sarksyan's chances", and predicting, that upon election "Sarksyan will have to deal with the so-called "frozen" conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh".

The "Nagorno-Karabakh" perspective is also covered by Agence France-Presse, which also indicates, that Serzh Sarkisian, seen as the fruntrunner, is likely to follow in Kocharian's footsteps if elected -- pursuing close ties with Moscow and maintaining a hawkish stance in relations with neighbouring Azerbaijan and Turkey.

Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog

Photos: Armenia Elects New President

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:42:26 GMT

Photos: Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008

Armenia Election Monitor 2008 brings the first photos of the election day - "Finally the day has arrived", writes Onnik Krikoryan with relief, "Whatever the outcome one thing is certain. In this round or a possible second, Armenia will elect a new president in a vote that international observers hope will represent a marked improvement over the last presidential election in 2003."

in Armenian

Armenia Votes Today!

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 06:39:37 GMT

2 million 328 thousand 320 voters are eligable to vote for the new president of the country, Athanatoi (Hrant) writes in his blog, reminding that 8000 police officers are on duty today to ensure security of the polls. The initial results of the Armenian presidential elections will be known by 6:00 AM on February 20th.

"Ah yes, today is the day where corruption, blind nationalism, and fraud all come together in the form of Armenia's Presidential Election!" Rhyne of Armenia blog writes from US. "One thing's for certain, this is not going to be a demonstration of democracy and whoever is elected will first and foremost get himself rich, then those near him, and whatever is left will be spread among the lower individuals in power".

հայերեն

Armenian Elections: Bloggers also Facing The Challenge of Choice

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:48:52 GMT

Despite rapid political developments and political campaign pouring onto the Armenian voter from all sides, many people haven't yet made up their mind about which presidential candidate to support. The situation is similar offline - that is to say in real life, as well as online - in the virtual reality of Internet diaries. «Which is the right thing - having a stance, or not?», Christina is asking in her «One day...» blog, further explaining:

I can't decide on my stance for the upcoming presidential elections. I want a change - but I don't see anyone, who could show me - a regular person with mediocre abilities and feelings, the way to those changes.

Artashes Boyajyan has written a couple of really interesting posts, asking why would anybody want to vote for either Levon Ter-Petrossian or Serzh Sargsyan, after taking an unbiased look at the failures of both candidates during their time in power, when it comes to key state-building issues like:

building a democratic state, with institutional separation of powers and functional checks and balances;

establishing (in reality, not on paper) a basically fair and transparent system of economic regulations;

promoting the rule of law and the respect for dignity and essential rights of Armenian citizens.

An interesting attempt at portraying the pre-election scene in Armenia was undertaken by the Armenian Patchwork blog - publishing photos of various candidates' posted political posters:

Political Posters© Photos by Anush Babajanyan, Yerevan, 2008

In his JLiving notes blog David Sand describes the pre-election race on television, mostly commenting on the newscasts of the Public TV of Armenia and remarking, that per his impression, all candidates are given equal attention. Continuing along these lines, the blogger writes:

Baghdasaryan's campaign is rather colorful, he speaks a lot, although often on unrelated issues, keeps promising growth in pensions, incomes and other material goods. [] The fact, that such announcements are simply absurd, are perceived perhaps by only a few people. Geghamyan keeps throwing dirt at Ter-Petrossian, at the same time advertising his glorious anti-crises program less and less. Vahan Hovhannisyan's speeches are boring, but perhaps some people find them interesting? [] Vazgen Manukyan's speeches are very interesting, but obviously more then half of the voters do not understand him.

[]

The coverage of Ter-Petrossian's campaign sounds more like а criminal newsreel. First some freedom-fighter was beaten[], yesterday was an even bigger brawl in Artashat with a rather contradictory coverage as to who initiated and who suffered from the fight.

Onnik Krikoryan keeps following the election trails, photographing all important rallies. His second blog - Armenian Election Monitor 2008 also features English language press and blog reviews, covering all aspects of election related developments. Last week Onnik Krikoryan posted about Serzh Sargsyan, Artur Baghdasaryan and Vahan Hovhannisyan rallies.

Photos by Onnik Krikoryan © Oneworld
Multimedia 2008

At any rate, there is still one week to go before the elections, and the undecided voters, still have time to make up their minds. As for now, Christina is calling on to everybody to be more reserved:

I don't know, really don't know... hatred and evil are clashing like waves in this little piece of land, and their rage is acquiring the force of a tempest. Hatred closes you eyes, puts your target in front of you and all your creative talents are wasted on efforts to destroy it. Spare those efforts...

Competition: Best Armenian LiveJournal Post of 2007

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:30:21 GMT

The ever lively Armenian LiveJournal segment of Armenian Blogosphere are organizing a contest: Best Armenian LiveJournal Post of 2007. Despite some Bloggers have already started complaining that this competition is not useful and that there are no clear criteria of selection, I think it is a worthy undertaking, especially from the point of view of supporting publication of higher quality content - so why not, especially as Kornelij very justly pointed out, the number of blogs is growing, but the quality of blog-posts is degrading? Below are details of the competition:

In order to be considered, please post in the comments section of this post a link to the article of the LiveJournal user, which for you was the most interesting and valuable. The conditions of the competition are:

1. You cannot post a link to your own article.
2. You can link to a post, where comments are more interesting/valuable, then the article itself.
3. Each user can nominate a maximum of 5 posts, given that they come from different authors.

On the website Miacum.ru a section called "Best of LJ" will be created, where the 10 "prize-winning" posts of the 2007 year will be published. The winner will receive a lot of PR and will be given the opportunity to post a message to the Armenian Blogosphere, which we will publish on the Top of the homepage. The deadline for presenting links and discussions is 1 month. The user, whose posting is nominated more then anybody elses, will win.

With best wishes, Miacum team

"Hairitage" Will Endorse Levon Ter-Petrossian

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:25:15 GMT

[2008-02-12 02:33 | Echannel.am] Interesting developments: during a press conference today the press secretary of "Hairitage" party Hovsep Khurshudyan and MP Vardan Khachatryan have announced the decision made by the board of the party about endorsing the candidacy of Ex-President Levon Ter-Petrossian during the upcoming presidential elections.

This move was both expected and unexpected: we all knew, that Raffi Hovhannisyan, as a leader of an opposition party in Parliament, would have preferred to support an opposition candidate, however, there are vast difference in approaches to foreign policy issues like Armenia - Turkey relations and Karabakch resolution between what the "Hairitage" party/Raffi Hovhannisyan have been proposing so far, and what Levon Ter-Petrossian has said or has implied. Moreover, back in the 90's, Raffi Hovhannisyan was fired from his post of Foreign Minister over his disagreement with Levon Ter-Petrossian regarding the Armenian Genocide issue and foreign policy towards Turkey. It remains to be seen, just how much "Hairitage" has compromised, and in return for what?

Uzogh's Top Ten List of Armenian Blogs

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:44:50 GMT

Per my request, respectable Mr. Uzogh has drafted his favourite list of Armenian blogs - and I've been delighted to find at least two blogs in the list, which I hadn't been paying much attention to earlier - while I defiantly should - so I can't thank Uzogh enough. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the list - not quite ten, but definitely top :)

Really Funny: UK Expert Praises The Subjective Media Coverage in Armenia!

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:19:09 GMT

Karen Prichard, the head of a division at the British non-governmental organization ECHO made a statement at Armenia Marriott Hotel on 8 February, according to which the Armenian media have been covering the process of the current presidential election in Armenia objectively and impartially on the whole:

[ARMINFO | 8 Feb 08] Prichard said that between 21 and 27 January, the organization's experts studied 743 election materials that appeared in the domestic newspapers (published in both Armenian and Russian), on TV companies and the Public Radio of Armenia. Ninety per cent of the domestic media outlets presented information about all presidential candidates in this period. She said that the organization's experts got 53 per cent of their information from the newspapers, 34 per cent from television and 23 per cent from radio.

The report, which has been commissioned by the European Foundation for Democracy and is available for download from here, is deeply flawed - and I've highlighted the problem area in the extract above.

Anybody remotely familiar with the Armenian media landscape will understand, what is dramatically wrong with this report - Echo have taken 53% of publications related to the elections from the newspapers, and only 34% from television, whereas, I can state that less then 1% of Armenia's population (no more then 30,000 people) use newspapers as their prime source of information - or read any newspapers at all for that matter. Because newspapers have such an insignificant degree of influence over public life, the authorities in Armenia so far left the printed media relatively free, and because the opposition haven't had any opportunities to find their way into the dominant medium in the country - which is television, over the past several years (after closure of A1+ and Noyan Tapan TV companies to be more exact, that is to say since 2002), the opposition have hang on to newspapers as the only medium which can voice their points of view. As a result, the newspapers in Armenia are highly biased and supportive of the opposition - but, nobody reads them, remember?

Radio is also a relatively insignificant medium when it comes to acting as a source of information - and has also been left relatively free. So what has happened is - ECHO - have taken 76% of their research material from sources, which are highly biased towards the opposition or relatively balanced, but who cover less then 10% of news consumers in the country, and put them in the same formula which television material, which, however, covers more then 95% of news consumers.

The question is - why and how could an authoritative UK research organization do such a gross mistake? Is it because they were paid a little extra, or because they're just plain stupid?

Bloggers Love Media - Media Love Blogs, so Who Loves More?

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:13:31 GMT

Armenian blogs have always been attentive towards Mass Media, although you can't really call it love, in part because there's not much to love in the Armenian Mass Media these days. As to the newly demonstrated love of the Armenia media towards Bloggers, Ahousekeeper has very rightly noted:

"Aravot" newspaper has discovered the Armenian Blogosphere. Talking to Uzogh, and later, searching through our journals, they have come to the conclusion, that Armenian Bloggers "don't like political games and disdain homosexuals". So now you know what questions journalists are most interested in, don't you?

And while some Bloggers appreciate the fact, that the Armenian media have finally entered the 21st century, others are wondering, why, of all issues discussed in the Blogosphere, the Aravot journalist had been so interested only in Bloggers' attitude towards homosexuals? At any rate, despite the strange conclusions made by the journalist and obviously "provocative" headline, it was a pretty good article, the Armenian News Blog has concluded. Let us remind once again, that A1+ and Radio Hay are the two media who love Bloggers more, and loved them earlier then others. Both of these media outlets already have set up their own blogs. A1+ blog is located at http://a1plus.blogsome.com, and Radio Hay blog is at http://www.radiohay.am.
Coming to the "reciprocal" love of Bloggers for the Armenian media, here's what we read on Ogostos's journal about ALM TV company - a TV company - widely regarded among the more educated young group of the population in Armenia, as a disgraceful TV channel, which could only be laughed at:

The "ALM" channel went on air on metric frequency, which means - it was broadcast all over Armenia.
A most incredible TV channel was thus created in the world. Different from all others. Television, who's owner has the right to do everything. He can broadcast 24 hours of a party held at the "ALM" for New year if he likes. Or, if he likes, he can show a boy singing 24 hours of traditional Yezidi songs. He can talk politics 24 hours in the most awkward key... if he likes. And if he likes, he can announce to the whole wide world "darned Yezdis, I invite them here to sing, and in return, they don't vote for me! this means, they won't sing on my channel any more!".

One more interesting Mass Media discussion was started on Uzogh's blog. The blogger had placed a news video from the Haylur news program of Public TV of Armenia, covering the recent pre-election meeting of Levon Ter-Petrossian with voters in the town of Talin, during which a man from the crowd was beaten up by the supporters of the presidential candidate, in response to his yell: "Talin people are not supporting you!".

The blogger had asked other Armenian Bloggers working in the sphere of media, what they thought about the news item, and whether it was ethical or no. In response, Mark Grigoryan had come up with a detailed analyses, pointing out that:

Generally speaking, the material could have been done much more professionally. I think, that the Public TV of Armenia, undoubtedly, should provide news coverage of much higher quality than that.

The other respondents to Uzogh's inquiry also noted, that the news item wasn't balanced enough.
To conclude, we can state, that while the Armenian Mass Media are just doing the first steps towards discovering the Armenian Blogosphere, the Bloggers, on the contrary, have been talking the crap out of the Armenian mass media for quite some time now, and looking at the current trends in pre-electoral media coverage in the country, looks like they'll have much more to dwell upon in the coming week or two.

The audio version of this article will be broadcast on Radio Hay FM 104.1 on Saturday, 11:00
Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog

Levon Ter-Petrosyan's Supporters Apply to CEC to Annul Serzh Sargsyan's Registration

Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:59:45 GMT

Interesting development, although hardly anything will come out of this. At any rate, as ArmInfo reports, Levon Ter-Petrosyan's supporters have applied to the Central Electoral Commission (CEC) of Armenia to annul presidential candidate, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan's registration. During his meeting with journalists at Hayatsk club, on Tuesday, the Press-secretary of the Armenian ex-president's campaign headquarters Arman Musinyan has also told the journalists, that the means being spent on the campaign by the candidate from power aren't evidently from Sargsyan's election campaign fund. If the CEC fails to annul Sargsyan's registration within 3 days, the oppositionists will apply to court "to acknowledge the inactivity" of the CEC. He added that numerous facts of violations of electoral legislation have already been presented to international observers.

Needless to say, that one doesn't have to be an international observer, to understand that there are a large number of violations so far - and all I can wish for LTP supporters - is luck, so they can succeed in annulling Serzh Sargsyan's registration. Like many other voters I can't help stating, that Serzh Sargsyan's election will be the worst thing happening to this country - it will mean consolidation of power in one of the most shrewd and corrupt politicians Armenia has ever seen.

On the other hand, Levon Ter-Petrossian keeps doing everything possible, to take the place of the worst candidate Serzh Sargsyan has been occupying so far. Having embraced oligarchs like Grzo and corrupt judges like Pargev Ohanyan in his team of supporters, LTP now continues to voice his support for widely hated Vano Siradeghyan, Minister of Interior and Mayor of Yerevan in the times of LTP rule, and is also apparently courting the richest oligarch in the country - Gagik Tsarukyan, as the Armenia Election Monitor 2008 reports.

Kornelij's Top Ten of Armenian Blogs

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:14:43 GMT

Last week I asked Kornelij Glas, as one of the most experienced Armenian Bloggers, to write his list of Top Ten Armenian blogs, with the intention of including the list and an interview with him in the Radio program about blogging that we are producing at Internews. And although making Top Tens turned out to be a risky and dangerous business, Kornelij Glas produced a Top, which is presented below:

You would ask, why did it turn out to be a risky business? Well - because, Kornelij is a much more popular blogger then myself, so when I was making lists, nobody really cared, but once he did it, everybody started arguing, how come Kornelij hasn't included them in the list. So in response to all arguments, Kornelij Glas published another entry - his list of "Double Skulls", which instantly made into the Yandex Top of most discussed blog entries. So its not that bad, after all, I guess. Kornelij - sorry! I didn't mean to get you into so much trouble!

Regrouping in Opposition Camp: Who Joins Whom?

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:28:06 GMT

Interesting developments in the Armenian opposition camp:

First Levon Ter-Petrossian declared during his Vanadzor rally, that he had full-fledged reasons to state that Arthur Baghdasaryan and Raffi Hovhannisyan were going to join him.

Then, during his Yerevan rally, talking about the possibility to join the other oppositional candidates, Artur Baghdasaryan informed that negotiations were in process and declared, “Time and negotiations will show who is going to join but I think that today it will be an honor for any politician to join us and to join these thousands of people.” “Tomorrow Levon Ter-Petrossian and Raffi Hovhannisyan are going to join this gathering – all those people that want to live in a free, fair country. It is not important who will join whom. However, joining is very important,”

Following that, Raffi Hovhannisyan has said that Armenia needs a big and long-term unification, and not a short one. Heritage goes on communicating with all the four candidates, theoretically considering any option possible. The decision will be made by the party. “Our wish is that the main oppositional candidates should come out of the area of public speaking and be involved in rough, cold-blooded, serious judging that are going to be critical for Armenia,” Raffi Hovhannisyan has said. Heritage will express its final position on supporting a certain candidate by the end of the week.

Now one last thing - in his interview to Echannel.am, Vazgen Manukyan also was not excluding the possibility of forming a serious force with Raffi Hovhannisyan and Vahan Hovhannisyan. According to him, negotiations were going on around that unification. Yesterday it became clear that Vazgen Manukyan and Vahan Hovhannisyan were not going to get united, although, as Vazgen Manukyan put it, “No negotiations could be considered closed until February 9.”

Radio Hay Interested in Blogging

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:06:34 GMT

Radio Hay radio-station, broadcast in Yerevan on 104.1, is getting really interested in blogging and Blogosphere. The radio company started out by broadcasting the radio program made by the Internews based on my article: "Levonator and Serzhadevil in Focus of Bloggers' Attention" last Saturday, January 26th, 2008. The second issue of the program will be broadcast on Saturday, February 2, 2008, based on the article: "Democracy is when idiots vote...", in their 11:00 o'clock program dedicated to the 2008 Presidential elections.

Radio Hay have also launched a blog - dedicated to the 2008 Presidential elections, featuring news, polls, a portfolio of documents related to elections, links to useful resources. As I'm closely involved with helping set-up this blog, you're welcome to submit any comments about it here, on this blog, or at the blog on Radio Hay server.

For broadcast frequencies of Radio Hay in other regions of Armenia check out the following list:

Gyumri FM 106.6 MHz,

Sevan FM 107.1 MHz,

Vanadzor FM 106.3MHz,

Sisian FM 106.7 MHz,

Meghri FM 105.4 MHz,

Kapan FM 107.2 MHz,

Goris FM 105.6 MHz,

Jermuk FM 102.8 MHz,

Yeghegnadzor FM 104.8 MHz,

Stepanavan FM 102.2 MHz,

Ashtarak FM 100.4MHz,

Spitak FM 105.3 MHz,

Hrazdan FM 105.5 MHz,

Gavar FM 103.7MHz,

Dilijan FM 100.2 MHz,

Ijevan FM 101.6 MHz,

Noyemberyan FM 103.6 MHz,

Artashat FM 100.5 MHz,

Armavir FM 100.4 MHz,

Ejmiadzin FM 101.3MHz.:

The Armenian Print Media in Caricature

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 11:32:32 GMT

This cartoon made my day today. Such an accurate depiction of Armenian print-media these days! Nothing to add :) Via Echannel.am.

Observers Top-Ten List of Armenian Blogs in Armenian

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:51:07 GMT

For strange and mysterious reasons, despite years of existence of a very lively Armenian blogging community, the predominant languages of Armenian bloggers have been Russian and English, rather then native Armenian. The picture has started to change over the recent month however, a range of blogs writing in Armenian have sprang up, and one can now get a variety and diversity of opinion and information reading only Armenian language Armenian blogs. Needless to say, that I’m very happy to see such a development, and want to present here a number of links to some really excellent Armenian Language Blogs. Read them, comment them, encourage them:

Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog

Watch Out! Propaganda Blogs or Observer’s Blacklist of Campaign Blogs

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 15:04:48 GMT

Recent trends and developments in the Armenian blogosphere, whereby a range of extremely intolerant propaganda-blogs have sprang up, and have started attacking all and everyone around in the blogosphere - have taken the fun away from blogging. Instead of being the enjoyable personal hobby it once was, blogging now is increasingly becoming a risky business, a hostile environment, where you risk being attacked and harassed for your views.
Of course there was the trend, where “patriots” were attacking “liberals” in the blogosphere, and people were grouping together according to personal linking-disliking long before all these propaganda blogs had sprang up. But before - that was all a natural process, it was as any society works, and people were blogging, because they liked it. Today, as we see an increasing number of blogs, whose authors are blogging, not because they like to, but because they are assigned the task of posting all kinds of propaganda pieces by pro-Levon or pro-Serzh forces, including State Security services, I wonder, if they can be considered blogs at all? The way I see it - they are more like campaign posters or propaganda leaflets. At any rate, here is a list of blogs, which I have blacklisted so far, as they fall under the classification of non-blogs, or propaganda blogs, or agit-blogs - call them the way you like it:

1. http://azat2008.livejournal.com
2. http://countrev.livejournal.com
3. http://ppmv.livejournal.com
4. http://libero_am.livejournal.com
5. http://www.levonforpresident.com/am/33/
6. http://gazan2008.livejournal.com
7. http://winner2008.livejournal.com
8. http://azgainakan.livejournal.com

There are some 3-4 more, about which I have suspicions, but will not post here, until I have more evidence of them being commissioned to write by Levon’s team or Serzh’s minions. And I’m sure you have noticed more of these, so please kindly let me know about them in the comments section of this post. As to the rest of the REAL bloggers out there - my suggestion is let’s ignore all these fake blogs, these empty shells, because once the campaign is over, they will be gone, and we will stay. And we will feel ashamed for being artificially dragged into this whirlpool of black PR using blogs. Dear blogger-friends - beware! The Big Brothers are watching us!

Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog

Levonator and Sezhadevil in Focus of Bloggers' Attention

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:53:12 GMT

The week was eventful, and while the traditional media in Armenia are pondering their adequate response, so as to avoid "unnecessary complications", the Armenian Internet community were discussing the comings and goings of the current political scene full speed. The start of the week was marked by yet another scandal around the Constitutional Right Union (CRU) party(AM) with the chairman of the party Hrant Khachatryan slapping the deputy chairman of the party Haik Babukhanyan in public second time within one year, after the latter attacked party headquarters with a group of supporters and police forces. Another picturesque moment came as the head of People's Party Tigran Karapetyan visited Gyumri (AM) and lit special candles, painted in the tricolors of the Armenian flag. According to Bloggers, although they were hardly serious about this, burning a the candles was equivalent of burning of the flag - offensive for the state. On the other hand, some noted, that if the red colour stripe is burned out, the remaining part of the candle will resemble the Ukrainian blue-yellow flag. Kornelij Glas blog is surprised with the stance of the opposition "Heritage" party(RUS). After their leader was denied registration as a presidential candidate, the party sent out questionnaires to other opposition forces, so as to decide which candidate they will support. Now, as the party have announced, that they won't support anyone unless at least two opposition candidates join forces, the blogger is wondering, how much longer the party will linger with their decision: "Till April perhaps?". Dildoyan has many questions to the government candidate Serzh Sargsyan(RUS) about the a) infamous Armenicum drug, which according to Serzh Sargsyan was supposed to be 100% cure for aids and back in the 90's would have made the country rich, b) the terrorist act in the Armenian parliament on October 27, 1999, when Serzh Sargsyan was the minister of State Security, c) surrender of important industrial complexes to Russia. The blogger also has suggestions to improve the speeches of the opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian, saying he should include the following in his texts:

To the Authorities: Let My People Vote!
You are putting my people under constant pressure - offering bribes in exchange for their vote, intimidating them, using your proxies to bully them, blackmailing them, threatening them with the loss of their jobs and livelihoods. Your pundits are bombarding the air with their phony prognoses of the win in the first round. Leave my people alone! Let my people vote! Move out of their way! Remember - you will not get away with your machinations, not this time. I will not let you.

To the voters: You've gotta fight for the right to party!
People, be vigilant. Do not trade in your vote, and with it your integrity and dignity, for the money they have stolen from you in the first place. Get out to the voting stations and vote! For me or against me - not important. Cast your vote, do not let the crooks steal it or stuff those boxes with their fakes. Wake up! Stand up! You will remember the day for years to come and feel proud. I am with you. We are in this together.

With one paragraph A1plus blog sums up the start of the official pre-election campaign(AM):

The campaign begins with Artashes Geghamyan's formula of bringing people into mainstream and presentation of his "Program of Genesis", Vazgen Manukyan's meeting with youth and motto of taking charge of the country, Levon Ter-Petrossian's announcement about "sacrificing his head to save the country during his trip to the provinces, Vahan Hovhannisyan's festive singing and dancing with "his friends", Rule of Law speculations on divisions also among government as a clear sign of a possible second round, where the opposition can also join forces...

The Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian remains the most discussed person in the Blogosphere. F5 blog is joining the electorate of this candidate(AM), urging everyone to: "Help each other to destroy this corrupt pyramid weighing on our future and the future of our children". Gazan2008 on the other hand is explaining why he hates Ter-Petrossian so much(AM). "I hate him because of all those numerous brilliant young people, who made me proud not so long ago. For those, who were "sksela", "alternative", "rock" and who smelled of freedom and freshness. I hate him, because his appearance broke that mind-set and sprit once again, turning a large crowd of free young people into puppets of his insatiable arrogance".

Following the Armenian elections from UK with satellite TV, Unzipped is noting balanced media coverage on the day 1 of official presidential election campaign, contrasting it with the pre-official campaign period:

"In December on the Armenian air the negative references to the first RA President Levon Ter-Petrosian continue to dominate. In other words, during the last month of 2007 the unprecedented phenomenon, recorded in November, continued when the share of neutral editorial coverage of an Armenian politician quantitatively fell behind that of negative: 103 negative references to Levon Ter-Petrosian versus 100 neutral ones and 4 positive ones. At the same time the share of negative ones in the total number of references has somewhat gone down in December - 49.8% versus 58.7% - in November. "
[]

Anyway, today was a different story - Armenian media behaved as it should have behaved always. If it only continues this trend over the whole election period and beyond... Media monitoring by international and local agencies played important role in putting pressure on government and Public TV via mainly European/US influential bodies, and is as vital as ever to ensure continuous fair coverage of presidential campaign.

Civilized discussions finished on this. Following the publication of the list of presidential candidate websites on The Armenian Observer blog, an outburst of interest towards those sites by the Armenian Internet community followed. Reporter_arm found a section of personal photos(AM) on the website of the RA Prime minister, presidential candidate Serzh Sargsyan's website, which became the dominant topic of blog discussions for the rest of the week. Viewing the childhood photos of the Prime Minister made Samvel Martirosyan finally realise, that the Prime Minister is also human(AM). Photos of the Prime Minister playing chess, with a book entitled "Napoleon" specifically brought to foreground and a number of other photos in the unofficial photo series brought about a highly sarcastic response, the choice of symbolisms picked by the Prime Minister made Bloggers comment, and comment with humour.

The mockery of Prime Minister's photos further strengthened after the unofficial website in support of opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian posted a sideshow, where with appalling negligence of all ethical norms and morality the photos taken from Serzh Sargsyan's website were edited and commented out in a way as to present the pro-government presidential candidate as a "mafia" boss, gambler and a devilish personality. To balance it out, the Nothing Else Matters... blog posted Ter-Petrossian's photo, which, according to the blogger, is so scary, that there is no need to further edit it.

The week concluded with the appearance of the Levonator and Serzhadevil (see photos posted at the start of this article), which completely frustrated some of the more balanced Bloggers. Ogostos being one of them called for Bloggers to stop making fun of the photos of candidates and return to a more acceptable level of debates.

Originally posted at the Armenian Observer Blog

SKSELA - Barekendan. At Komitas Statue, Sunday, 03.02.2008, at 13:00

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 13:11:58 GMT

From official Sksela website.

Elections Manifestos for Serzh Sargsyan, Arman Melikyan and Vazgen Manukyan Made Public

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 10:22:58 GMT

Days after Levon Ter-Petrossian made public his election program (now also available in English), other candidates started to move. At the moment of writing the following candidates have published their elections programs:

Serzh Sargsyan, prime minister and the main contender for the presidential post as several polls are suggesting has published his program on the Serzh Sargsyan Official Website. The English version of the program is still not available, although a placeholder page exists.
Vazgen Manukyan's program was posted on his website yesterday, the text is also available as an MS Word document. No English version here either.
To the best of my knowledge, Arman Melikyan doesn't have a website so far, but his program is posted at the Elections website of A1plus and is available split into Part I and Part II.
Vahan Hovhannisyan's program is available from his website, but to the best of my knowledge, it is not the officially published and promoted one.
Artur Baghdasaryan's program is supposed to be here, but the link points to a blank page at this point.

The rest of the candidates: Artashes Geghamyan, Tigran Karapetyan, Aram Harutyunyan have not done any attempts to make their programs public so far, not even failed ones like in the case of Artur Baghdasaryan. Still, the official pre-election campaign starts Monday, so they have time.

Originally posted at The Armenian Observer Blog.

A1plus Has Launched Official YouTube Channel

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:01:28 GMT

Leading Armenian Online News resource - A1plus has launched an official YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/a1plusnews address, where news, videos, archive materials and exclusive videos, not published even on the main A1plus website will be made available. The first video uploaded so far is a funny one. At the Press Conference Levon Ter-Petrossian gave on January 11th, days after the publication of his pre-election program, the Regnum correspondent starts a question to the First President, starting with the words: "Mr President, when you are elected..." and then suddenly sneezes. This triggers a wave of laughter, because Armenians believe, that sneezing indicates truthfulness of a statement, hence, she seems to be confirming, that Ter-Petrossian will be elected.

Well, I guess it takes more then a sneeze to become the President of Armenia, but the video is excellent anyway. Thanks to A1plus for making it available.

Original post at The Armenian Observer Blog.