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Freedom House Downgrades Karabakh Democracy For Uncertain Reasons

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  • Freedom House Downgrades Karabakh Democracy For Uncertain Reasons

    FREEDOM HOUSE DOWNGRADES KARABAKH DEMOCRACY FOR UNCERTAIN REASONS
    Armen Hareyan

    HULIQ.com
    http://www.huliq.com/1/1113-freedom-house-downgrades-karabakh-democracy-uncertain-reasons
    Jan 14 2011

    The Freedom House (FH) report, analyzing the democratic trends of
    2011, reveals that the Former Soviet region, with the exception of
    Baltic States, is moving toward authoritarian rule of governance.

    While Armenia is partially a free country, Azerbaijan is downgraded.

    Nagorni Karabakh is downgraded for uncertain reasons as well.

    The truth, according to the Freedom House, is that since 2001 the
    region as a whole demonstrates continuous decline in political rights
    and civil liberties. However, FH estimates show that the whole global
    freedom suffered its fifth consecutive year of decline in 2010.

    With everything more or less predictable, Nagroni Karabakh's democratic
    downgrade is surprising. As you already might have noticed, the NKR,
    first time ever, now is listed in the "not free" group, together
    with its former metropolis ~V Azerbaijan. In my opinion, there
    is a mixture of causes behind this outcome. But before mentioning
    this, I would urge to pay attention to the Report of the Independent
    American-Dutch Monitoring Delegation, published after the observation
    mission on Karabakh Parliament elections of May 2010. It is important
    to highlight the position of the only American observation mission,
    in order to understand where the FH got its negative feedback about
    Karabakh. The report reads that the elections were held in a "free,
    fair and transparent" manner, in line with national legislation and
    the international standards of democracy. The report also marked that
    "Nagorno Karabakh continues to make strong progress in establishing
    and sustaining a healthy and sustainable democracy". So, if FH put
    together all the reports coming from the field, it could not have
    resulted in worsening of its status, but just the opposite.

    Bearing this in mind, I argue that the FH assessment is more about
    putting the indicators of Nagorno Karabakh into some "equation" that
    all the other countries pass, without any attachment to the real
    political situation and other specifications, effective in Karabakh.

    What I want to say, is the following. It's well known, that the
    last year, 2010, elections in NKR were less competitive than in the
    previous years, because, as it came, less oppositional candidates
    contested in the elections. The result was that only 1, if I am
    right, candidate out of the all elected MPs can be labeled as being
    oppositional. And naturally, I guess, the FH experts just put this
    indicator into their equation and the result came, that there is a
    certain decline in the democracy of Karabakh. Those experts and FH,
    as a whole, obviously did not have time to dig in deeper and realize,
    that in reality the main opposition forces in Karabakh had simply
    been unwilling to contest the elections for the reasons they would
    know better themselves. Perhaps they had not been ready to effectively
    participate in the elections, and simply chose the easiest way in the
    political process: to standby the elections, and begin criticizing
    the Government and the new Parliament for whatever they criticize,
    without minor efforts to engage in the political process.

    Instead, in the unrecognized Republic of Nagorno Karabakh certain
    democratic improvements in the Electoral Code went into effect before
    2010 general elections. The general thresholds for political parties
    was lowered from 10 to 6 percent, and for political blocs ~V from
    15 to 8 percent, thus increasing the chances for relatively small
    political units to effectively contest general elections.

    In short, the result indicated in the FH report, is more about
    technical problems in FH assessments and their practice of
    generalization, than about a real setback in Karabakh democracy.

    Still, I am not ready to challenge the impartiality of the FH,
    since it' has been the most established democracy and human rights
    monitor in the world, recognized as such by many. I hope they will
    soon correct themselves, as the Permanent Representative of NKR in
    Washington DC Amb. R.Avetisyan sent them a letter on the matter,
    with comprehensive presentation of the political map of Karabakh.

    Written by Hovhannes Nikoghosyan: Director and Research Fellow at
    Yerevan-based Public Policy Institute (www.professionals.am)




    From: A. Papazian
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