Please note that I did not say it was democratic. However, what was most depressing was that shameful situation the radical opposition found itself in. Nevertheless, I don’t believe that Armenia is devoid of valuable people who could lead a proper opposition, and for sure, Raffi Hovannisian is one.

And to date, very little has happened to him or any other opposition leaders. Ironically, Alexander Arzoumanyan appeared out of nowhere, but look what happened to him, and I still don’t quite understand why. Okay, so it looks like he did receive money from abroad to promote civil disobedience, but I’m not sure if would have succeeded.

Yes, he was the last Foreign Minister under LTP, and yes, he more intelligent than most opposition figures. However, up until his arrest he seemed to spend most of his time translating Hetq Online alongside his wife. Hardly a threat to anyone, I’d say, but anyway. Nevertheless, it is interesting to view certain developments in Armenia and to try to analyze them.

For example, it isn’t just Arzoumanyan. It’s also Zhirayr Sefilyan and Vardan Malkhasyan. Likewise, even if any of these guys were planning to initiate some kind of embryonic revolutionary movement, it is up to the authorities to prove it in a court of law which they clearly can’t, hence the constant extension of 2-month pre-trial detention.

Which leads us back to the international community. What are they doing about these cases, and isn’t it time for the Council of Europe in particular to consider them political prisoners or at least openly examine that possibilty?

ELECTIONS COMPLETED

A1 Plus, 19 July, 2007

Today the citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh are electing the president of the Republic. The elections started at 08:00 a.m.. The presidential aspirants are Bako Sahakyan and Masis Mayilyan.

Masis Mayilyan’s proxies have already registered some cases of rigging, which are submitted to the Central Electoral Commission. “A group of people, presenting themselves as the supporters of Bako Sahakyan, crowded at number 4/1 and 4/2 polling stations since 09:00 a.m.

Boris Gasparyan and Grigor Gasparyan, proxies, appealed to the chairmen of the electoral commissions to keep the people at a certain distance from the polling stations as it was set up by the Electoral Code”.

At number 4/7 polling station the elections were completed at 10:45 a.m., and that is verified by the following announcement disseminated by Mayilyan’s proxies: “This fact is not only the violation of the NKR Electoral Code, since according to the legislation the polling station should be open till 20:00 p.m., it is also the violation of electoral rights of the NKR citizens”.

Well, I suppose most of the stuff happened before and after the vote itself. That is, vote bribes and vote counting. Still, as strange as that might sound for Armenia, this is an improvement. However, there is no way the election could be considered democratic although it did mark a step forward.

Yes, yes, I know, new ways of falsifying materialized instead, but they were less obscene and identifiable than in the past. For example, I suppose the Republican Party vote was grossly inflated and I saw huge amounts of people being bussed in to polling stations.

However, while I might wonder if these guys weren’t bribed and bussed in I can’t prove it, and nor can the international observers hence the preliminary report. Instead, opposition parties and supportive NGOs couldn’t prove it either. And the results also didn’t push tens of thousands of people out onto the streets.

As I’ve said before, everyone was to blame for the election in Armenia, but we can at least hope that the ways in which it was an improvement over past elections can be built upon in time for 2008, Meanwhile, back to Karabakh, it will be interesting to hear what foreign journalists have to say about that vote.

Of course, it won’t be international observation missions such as the OSCE because Europe and the United States will not recognize them or even commend them if they are a shining example to the rest of the former Soviet world in Central Asia and the Caucasus at least.