LEVON TER-PETROSSIAN. ELECTION PROGRAM, OR SOBER REFLECTIONS

Election programs, especially in post-Soviet countries, tend to have a standard structure and content, resembling, in a way, official decrees. As a rule, they comprise a catalogue of social, political, and economic actions and reforms that a candidate seeking voter support pledges to undertake. Election programs usually come heavily loaded with infinitives like “to increase”, “to raise”, “to stimulate”, “to further develop”, “to strengthen”, “to expand”, “to deepen”, “to care about”, “to pay attention to”, “to combat”, “to eradicate”, and so on. These infinitives, however, are unfortunately as indeterminate in substance as they are in form. This is the reason that ordinary voters usually have a hard time not just figuring out the details of the variety of programs, but even understanding their key differences. This, consequently, makes the candidates’ personal characteristics – biography, charisma, moral character, professional qualities, experience, and so on. – seem all the more important to the voters. Sometimes, no program is even necessary, since looks, charm, and public speaking skills will do just as well.

Another indispensable attribute or characteristic of election programs is an abundance of populism. Candidates leap over each other in a race to see who can offer more and better pledges, without caring whether these pledges are realistic, rational, or feasible at all. The purpose is to gain in the short term and win the election, never mind that the pledges will not be honored and those who made them will have reason to blush in the future, if they haven’t lost all sense of shame, that is. Populist illusion or hypnosis, though tested and found wanting time and again, remains one of the most formidable evils or obstacles to the development of society everywhere, even in the most developed countries of the world. Nevertheless, even after people are let down by one populist, they embrace the next, failing to learn the lessons of previous disappointments. The fact is, this seemingly innocent delusion shuts the door to politics for realistic, responsible, and pragmatic people. In the life of the state, this causes unnecessary political, economic, and social confusion, ultimately slowing down the normal course of the development of the society.

You may be sure that regardless of the details, the election programs of the participants in the ongoing campaign will not be substantially different in terms of either their usage of infinitives or their abundance of populist pledges. I will depart, however, from the general standard and the rigid tradition, and attempt to address the people in simple, accessible, human language, without claiming the mantle of innovator or messenger of truth from on high.

The Memory of Paradise Lost

With the present miserable reality as its point of departure, our society thinks of the recent past as almost a Miltonian Paradise Lost, and painful as it may be, there is a grain of truth in this view. Despite the many sufferings and ordeals that the Armenian people went through in the last one hundred years – genocide, exodus, loss of homeland, revolution, civil war, collectivization, famine, Stalinist terror, world war, and so on – it is nonetheless undeniable that in the same period in history, our country also was afforded the opportunity over the years of the realization of our national aspirations, security, peace, and prosperity.

By the realization of our national aspirations, I mean, first of all, the establishment of the first Armenian Republic, and its nearly three-year existence. We were not fortunate enough to liberate ourselves from the Russian Empire once and for all, as Poland and Finland did, or even to achieve twenty years of independence, as the Baltic states did, which would have enabled us to bring up an entire generation in the spirit of national democracy and establish stable traditions of statehood. That is what made the difference between the Baltic nations and the rest of the nations in the Soviet Union, and that is what explains their present achievements in state-building as well.

The First Republic, nonetheless, played a decisive role in the political life of the Armenian people, for had it not existed, there would have been no Soviet Armenia, and ultimately, no independent Republic of Armenia today. In any case, in terms of the last ninety years, even if there was no full-fledged statehood, there was a certain legacy of sovereignty nonetheless, and the historical value of this fact cannot be overstated.

In terms of security and peace, the Soviet years were, perhaps, a rare period in the 3,000-year history of the Armenian people. Although many lives were lost and thousands of families destroyed in the civil war (1921), collectivization and famine (1928-1933), and Stalinist terror (1937-1938), and in addition, the ensuing World War (1941-1945) had serious demographic consequences, it is also a fact that over the last ninety years, no enemy has set foot on Armenian soil. Suffice it to mention that almost no European country has been able to escape such tragedy.

As for prosperity, Armenian citizens of my generation and older understand it in terms of the lifestyle of the 1960s and 1970s, with a more or less ensured minimum standard of living, no unemployment, modest but stable and guaranteed wages, free education and healthcare, little concern for tomorrow, and so on. Although the automobile, summer cottage, private house, and imported apparel and furniture were still regarded as luxuries, the television set, refrigerator, and washing machine had a broad presence in our lives. To a degree, the question of Armenian national pride was addressed as well, owing to the achievements of world-famous Armenian scientists, military leaders, writers, artists, and athletes. The fame, in the Soviet Union and throughout the world, of people like Victor Hambartsumyan, Abraham Alikhanov, Norayr Sissakyan, Abel Aghanbegyan, Hovhannes Baghramian, Hamazasp Babajanian, Hovhannes Isakov, Martiros Sarian, Aram Khachaturian, Ohan Durian, Arno Babajanian, Eduard Mirzoyan, Alexander Harutyunyan, Avet Terterian, Hrant Matevossian, Sergey Parajanov, and Artavazd Peleshyan, as well as the successes of Tigran Petrossian, Yuri Vardanyan, and the Ararat Soccer Club were an endless source of joy for the Armenian people, at the same time gratifying their patriotic feelings and national dignity. In short, there was a certain comforting atmosphere in comparison with today that my generation, and older generations, may remember if not as a Paradise Lost, at least as times arousing sweet memories. Let us also not overlook a psychological factor: people tend to think of the years of their youth as the best time of their lives. And since the 1960s and 70s were the period of adolescence and young adulthood for the generation I am referring to, it is no wonder that there is a certain degree of nostalgia in Armenia.

Then, beginning in the mid-1970s, came the so-called years of stagnation. The arms race, falling oil prices, and systemic flaws threw the Soviet Union into a deep crisis. Endless lines for consumer products began to occur, product deficits reached enormous proportions, the stores were full of empty shelves, and coupons appeared for rationed meat, butter, coffee, sugar, rice, and so on. Neither the austere administrative measures of Andropov nor Gorbachev’s economic reforms succeeded in halting the decline of the Soviet Union, and the Empire collapsed – not just politically, but economically as well – under the pressure of democratic movements arising in the Republics. The Soviet economic collapse, by the way, had begun even before the Empire collapsed. In 1988 to 1991, there already were very serious problems among enterprises regarding mutual compliance, supplies, and spare and assembly parts; enterprises had accumulated enormous mutual debt; the annual budget deficit was 400-500 billion rubles; the national gold reserve was depleted; savings accounts were frozen; the ruble had depreciated about fifty times compared to the dollar; inflation was growing day by day, about to reach enormous proportions; and so on.

The collapse of the hyper-centralized, insular, and inextricably intertwined Soviet economic system could not fail to precipitate the inevitable demise of its industry, which, in varying degrees, happened in all of the former Soviet Republics. All of the newly independent states, having almost in an instant lost their existing economic ties and traditional markets, found themselves in a seemingly hopeless situation. Technologically backward and with no economic autonomy, none of these Republics was in any immediate position to bring a competitive product to the international market. Only those countries that could export raw materials had any measure of success. Countries that lacked natural resources were forced to overcome the crisis through radical economic reforms leading to the establishment of market relations.

In Armenia, the crisis that had befallen all of the former Republics of the Soviet Union was compounded by four additional and specific factors – the earthquake zone, 300,000 refugees, the blockades, and the war. Despite these additional hardships, Armenia was the first among the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States to not only recover from the economic recession by 1994, but actually start registering consistent economic growth, and a year later, also overcome the energy crisis. Considering that the period in question was also marked by victory in the Artsakh War, I cannot see how anyone would disagree that it was heroism unprecedented in the modern history of the Armenian people.

However, compared to the more or less secure life of the past era, the rapid deterioration of social conditions of the population could not have passed without consequences, and without creating a corresponding psychological atmosphere. Hence, the natural and understandable dissatisfaction and rejection within the society regarding the shock therapy-style economic reforms carried out by the authorities, the positive results of which would be felt only years later, but which were, at the time, very hard to explain to the society. No rational explanation will satisfy a person who is worse off today than he was yesterday. Therefore, no matter how objective and reasonable the arguments are for the inevitability of change, the memory or illusion of Paradise Lost will be stamped for quite some time in the minds of many of our fellow citizens. This is the heavy but honorable cross that the founding and reformist leaders of the Republic of Armenia will bear forever.

The Dream of Paradise Regained

Today, we have a people that has slid off the main highway of world development, with no peace of mind, deprived of the promise of prosperity, and doomed to a miserable existence. This, as mentioned above, is the result of the inevitable political, economic, and social distress caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union on one hand, and the intrinsically anti-national actions of Armenia’s current criminal regime on the other. Day and night, the regime trumpets the country’s unprecedented economic achievements, feeding the people rosy dreams of a shining future, much like the Soviet authorities fed their own citizens with the ghost of communism for seventy years. Meanwhile, for the majority of the people, today’s imperative is not the shining future, no matter how rosy, but the immediate need for, at minimum, a normal country. What does a “normal country” mean to the average Armenian; what does he or she dream about all the time? Sad as it may be, not about wealth, luxury, extravagance, or travel, but about satisfying the most basic human needs. Today, people in Armenia dream about:

- Having stable jobs, earning a living through hard work, providing for their families in dignity, feeding and clothing their children properly, giving them a decent education, and not fearing for the uncertainty of their future;

- Not having to emigrate for “guest work” and abandoning their families, even temporarily; not having to worry about the fate of those who have emigrated; not having to suffer from homesickness, which has an especially adverse effect on the upbringing and psychological well-being of children;

- Not having to be afraid of something bad happening to their sons in the military because of alcoholic or corrupt army commanders; and not having to consider dodging military service because of the hazing and brutality prevalent in the armed forces;

- Not encountering bureaucratic red tape; not being humiliated by public officials; not encountering rudeness in government offices; not having to seek middlemen or pay bribes in order to obtain documents that they are entitled to receive by law;

- Not denying themselves, because of a lack of means, simple human pleasures – reading, attending a theater or café, giving the children at least modest presents, spending time with friends, visiting relatives, taking time for recreation;

- Taking pride in the successes of the homeland and its international reputation; not being embarrassed by the ignorance or improper conduct of their own officials; being free of insecurities and not falling into pessimism and apathy; having respect for themselves and being respected by others.

In short, citizens of the Republic of Armenia simply dream of living in a more or less normal country, their understanding of which generally comes down to the following:

- That power is not concentrated in the hands of one or two individuals, but is exercised through the full independence of three branches of government – executive, legislative, and judicial, meaning that the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Parliament, the judges, as well as the Prosecutor’s Office, Ministries and other state agencies act only within the framework of their authority defined by the Constitution and the Law;

- That there are no unwritten laws in the nation; economic relations are not guided by the rules of the criminal underworld; and there is an end to corruption, which has now reached disastrous levels, and is not only soaking up a significant portion of the national wealth, but is also seriously undermining the country’s normal course of economic development, to say nothing of its moral consequences;

- That the Police, the Security Service, and the military not engage in politics or economic activity, but focus exclusively on their core functions of combating crime, maintaining public order, and ensuring the security and defense of the nation;

- That people do not fear the policeman, the judge, or the prosecutor, but on the contrary, view them as protectors; and that they do not submit to arbitrary, abusive, or discriminatory practices by tax inspectors and officers of the Customs Service;

- That bribery, protectionism, and bias have no role in business and entrepreneurship, and there is equal opportunity for everyone, so as not to allow the formation of voracious monopolies;

- That the authorities, rather than robbing the people and building up immeasurable wealth, act responsibly upon their commitments before the citizens, particularly as regards the recovery, under a clear timetable and at a proper rate, of assets in the frozen accounts of the Savings Bank; the money they embezzled in two years alone would be fully enough to resolve that unfortunate problem, which has caused so much social tension.

- That no semi-literate, incompetent, and ill-mannered individual – let alone lawbreakers and criminals – manages to infiltrate the hierarchy of civil service through some connections or loyalties, but that civil servants be appointed and promoted solely on the basis of their professional capabilities and merits;

- That the society appreciate the fundamental human virtues of morality, honesty, altruism, and sacrifice; and that sycophancy, obsequiousness, fraudulence, and careerism be unanimously denounced, rather than emulated;

- That the state, finally, seek the establishment of good-neighborly relations with all of its neighbors, resolving existing disagreements in line with its national interests, and paving the way for closer and multifaceted cooperation with the countries in the region.

This is, in broad terms, what comprises the everyday concerns and anxieties of the Armenian people, or in other words, the approximate image of the Paradise Regained that they dream of. The mere fact that realities so taken for granted in many countries in the world seem like such distant longings to our citizens demonstrates just how desolate the Republic of Armenia is after sixteen years of independence. Sixteen years, especially given the long period of peace following the ceasefire in 1994, was no small timeframe to address and resolve many of the issues mentioned above and alleviate at least some of the people’s concerns. Yet that these issues have gone unresolved is not the only painful thing. More painful still is the lack of any prospects for their resolution and the hopelessness that people have been taken over by. This is true of both the general populace as well as the more or less prosperous segments of the population, who also cannot shed that sense of hopelessness and vulnerability. Thus, the realization of the dream of Paradise Regained remains a seemingly impossible wonder, or utopia.

Armenia at the Crossroads

The 2008 presidential election provides the people of Armenia with the opportunity to make a choice between two distinct paths for shaping the future. One is the nightmarish scenario of reproducing the bandocratic system, which is corrupt from the top down. Formed in the aftermath of the terrorist attack of October 27, 1999, the ruling gang has gradually eliminated every possible counterbalance that might threaten its existence, and has succeeded in concentrating in its hands not just the executive, but also the legislative and judicial branches of power, turning Armenia into a Mongol-Tartar style khanate, governed not by the Constitution and the Laws, but by the incontestable will of an absolute monarch and the rules of the criminal underworld.

As a result of the gang’s criminal and antidemocratic activity for nearly a decade, Armenia has swerved off the main highway of international development, has been condemned to complete political and economic isolation, has been left out of all regional development projects and relegated to the rank of an underdeveloped third-world country.

It has become the raison d’être of the system to guarantee that the power pyramid and its lackeys become super-rich, at the expense of the prosperity and dignity of the people whom it regards as an alien mass. The unlimited concentration of power in the hands of a few who regard the State as their fiefdom does not merely erode the foundations of modern economics, democracy, and social justice, but jeopardizes the future of the country.

The flawed economic policies of the authorities have resulted in a fundamental breach of the three key principles of market economy – equal opportunity, free competition, and the inviolability of property. The Armenian economy is governed not by economic reason and market relationships, but by the orders of a few who have usurped power, and whose records, without exception, are tainted with an element of criminality.

The deadliest damage inflicted upon the Armenian economy is its all-out monopolization, which has allowed the accumulation of more than half of the country’s wealth in the hands of some forty families. This monopolization did not occur naturally; it was achieved through illegal measures employed by the gang – protectionism, nepotism, the creation of unequal conditions for entrepreneurs – phenomena which could hardly have occurred absent some underlying interests. This matter, beyond its economic significance, also has a political dimension, since forty super-rich families can determine the fate of the entire Armenian people.

Privileges accorded to monopolistic companies have had yet another negative consequence – the unequal distribution of the tax burden. Foreign experts believe that at present, only 22% of tax revenues are paid by large entrepreneurs, whereas that figure should be 75%. This means that the tax burden is largely shouldered by small and medium-size businesses. Meanwhile, the unpaid revenues of large enterprises form a second, concealed budget in Armenia, which fills the pockets of those in power, and is much larger than the officially-declared state budget.

The planned termination of the Law on Simplified Tax threatens to further intensify the tax burden of the middle class, which has faced a complicated enough situation recently, due to a number of factors:

- The domestic consumer market has shrunk due to the decrease in population;

- The cost of domestic production and export industries has risen due to the artificial “appreciation” of the dram;

- The same phenomenon has caused a heavy blow to the import industry;

- Small and medium sized enterprises have become dependent on businesses holding import monopolies, and many have even lost independence completely and been absorbed into the voracious system.

Despite the double-digit economic growth trumpeted by the authorities and the impressive construction work in the center of Yerevan, the low standard of living remains the most disturbing social problem facing Armenia. It is particularly worrisome that not only is social polarization not subsiding, it is actually growing more extreme; the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer. Although there have been increases, from time to time, in wages, pensions, and allowances, the inflation of recent years has nullified those increases in people’s income. Today, $100 in Yerevan has the same purchasing power as $20-$25 ten years ago. Even according to official statistics, not only is emigration not slowing down, but it is holding steady at a rate of 25,000 people each year. The natural connection between the people and their homeland has disappeared. Abandoning the homeland, the home, and even the family has become commonplace.

Social conditions are especially harsh in provincial towns and rural areas, where the population is left to survive in total misery and a daily fight for survival. Our movement has undertaken a large-scale statistical survey, to identify changes in the figures for population and number of children enrolled in school in the provinces in the period of 1997 to 2007 – data that are not to be found at all in the official statistics. To give you an understanding of the growing pace of decline, it is worth presenting here a small number of randomly selected facts from that data:

- In 1997, the population of the Syunik Province was 163,426, and in 2007 it was 133,000; the numbers of school students were 27,500 and 17,875 respectively. Furthermore, there are 2,000 empty houses in that province, including 58 in the village of Tatev, 80 in Shinuhayr, 29 in Khoznavar, and so on.

- The population of the Shirak Province was 362,000 in 1997, and 281,000 in 2007, with a decline in numbers of school students from 58,000 to 44,000 respectively.

- The population in the Ararat Province was 275,000 in 1997, and 183,000 in 2007, with a decline in the number of school students from 53,500 to 38,900 respectively. The number of empty homes in the province was 2,000 in 1997, and is 5,000 today.

- The number of school students in the Lori Province was 60,000 in 1997. In 2007, it was 38,758.

- In 1997, there were 45,000 school students in the Armavir Province, while in 2007 there were only 39,000.

- The situation is even more dramatic in terms of individual population centers. For instance, between 1997 and 2007, the population of the town of Echmiadzin declined by 10,700, and the number of school students by 3,742; in the village of Baghramyan in the Armavir Province, the decline in the same categories was 612 and 142 respectively, in Karakert 600 and 286, in Shenik 160 and 44, in Dalarik 600 and 140, and so on.

In short, half-empty villages, abandoned houses, scattered families, closing schools – this is the real picture of Armenia of the Kocharyan-Serzh era, and not the posh storefronts of the center of Yerevan, luxury restaurants, and modern apartments, accessible to no more than five per cent of the population.

Although the grave socio-economic conditions in Armenia are caused, in part, by objective factors, namely the blockades, the consistent increase in world oil prices, and the continuing decline in the exchange rate of the dollar, their principal cause is connected to bad governance, the misguided economic policies of the current authorities, and rampant corruption, which is systemic in nature and run by those at the top of the regime.

This exploitation and robbery of the people takes place not only through a system of organized and opaque mechanisms, but also through outright crime at the state level, such as the disappearance of the revenues for the gas supplied by HayRusGasArd, the manipulation of statistics concerning imported gasoline and Kazakh gas, and illegal transactions on mines, reserve land, land plots in urban zones, and the privatization of public property.

The regime’s foreign affairs record is nearly as dismal and dangerous. Over the past decade, the international community and countries in the region have not received a single positive signal from Armenia. In essence, no progress has been made, and often there has been regress, in such vital and priority areas of foreign policy as the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the overcoming of the country’s political and economic isolation, the lifting of the transportation blockade, Armenia’s involvement in international and regional economic projects, the establishment of Armenian-Turkish relations, and so on. Armenia’s foreign policy has become known for its irresponsible, reactive, and inconsistent character, and for its lack of coordination. The Foreign Ministry has in fact been turned into a PR firm that runs the regime’s propaganda campaign in the international arena.

Thus, one path for the country’s “development” is the scenario of the reproduction of the criminal system that calls itself the leadership – an outcome tantamount to national disaster. Should the regime succeed in prolonging its stay in power for another ten years by resorting to violence, election fraud, and bribery, the nation would suffer an irreversible loss. No matter what campaign promises the regime’s candidate for President makes, the fact that he is one of the architects of the criminal system we have today strips these promises of all credibility. Connected with all of the agents of the bandocratic system through a web of cross-commitments and criminal partnerships, he is unable to divest himself of that system, even if he wants to, let alone reform it, for willingly or not he has become its hostage. This, then, is the path of inevitable failure.

***

The other path, or alternative, is to place your trust in a leadership that will take the country in the opposite direction, by turning to the needs and concerns of the average person, the citizen, the people. Thus, the next President of Armenia should be guided in his actions by the concerns, aspirations, and material and spiritual needs of the Armenian people, or the vision of Paradise Regained that I attempted to describe in the previous section, which comes down to the simple idea of turning Armenia into a normal country. To understand my program correctly, I suggest that you re-read that not very expansive chapter, and try to keep in mind all those issues that the people expect the authorities to resolve.

I do not believe that there is any reason to hope that the current authorities will realize even the most modest expectations of the people, for in the past ten years, they not only failed to take a single step in that direction, but on the contrary, condemned the people to complete slavery, by infringing their natural right to live in dignity and trampling upon their moral principles and all they hold sacred. I am also convinced that people will no longer be enticed by their promises or bribes, and will not permit their reproduction. Therefore, it is the new leadership of the Republic of Armenia that will bear the responsibility for realizing the dream of Paradise Regained, or establishing the foundations of a normal state.

Regretfully, in its 17th year of independence, the Armenian society is revisiting political and socio-economic challenges that should have been resolved long ago. By these, I mean the ideology of the Independence movement and the founding principles of the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, namely, balance among the branches of government, the guaranteeing of democratic freedoms and the rule of law, the protection of human and civil rights, the creation of a firmly-rooted market economy, and the development of civil society. Although all of this is clearly affirmed in the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the reality we face still has very little in common with the ideology of a modern State that the constitution proclaims. It is therefore not surprising that the priorities of my program as President, in all their detail, shall come down to the re-affirmation of the fundamental principles mentioned above. This is necessary, unfortunately, because the question of applying those principles today is as timely and urgent as it was seventeen years ago.

The Outline of a Normal Country in Political Terms

1. The domestic priorities of the future President of Armenia are the following:

- Restoring the Constitutional order; that is, designating power exclusively through free elections;

- Dismantling the pyramid-style system of bandocracy; guaranteeing the independence and balance of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government;

- Establishing full democracy; guaranteeing freedom of speech, the press, and conscience; affirming the tradition of the multi-party system and parliamentarism;

- Strengthening civil society institutions – local self-government bodies, trade unions, arts and professional guilds, and non-governmental organizations;

- Eliminating the existing practice of interference by law enforcement and the military in politics;

- Streamlining administration and cutting government bureaucracy, which has become bloated over the last ten years.

2. Among the foreign policy tasks facing the new leadership in Armenia, the most urgent are:

- Restoring balanced and constructive diplomacy, based on national interest; seeking friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation with all countries in the world;

- Adhering to commitments before international organizations; reiterating commitments to all international agreements concluded in the past;

- Strengthening and deepening good-neighborly relations with neighbors Russia, Georgia, and Iran, and making constructive efforts towards the normalization of relations with Turkey and Azerbaijan;

- Overcoming Armenia’s political and economic isolation; increasing the country’s involvement in international and regional economic systems;

- Demonstrating political will toward the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, from the position of defense of the right of the Armenian people of Artsakh to self-determination and pursuit of a resolution to the issue on the basis of a mutually acceptable compromise.

3. Urgent measures to restore the rule of law, by strengthening the judicial foundations of the State and improving the moral and psychological climate in the country are the following:

- Ensuring the equality of all people before the law and the complete independence of the Courts, by prohibiting any pressure on judges by other branches of government;

- Expanding the mandate of the Human Rights Defender, aiming at making that institution a real and effective counterbalance to government agencies, particularly law enforcement;

- Fiercely combating corruption, abuse of official position, bribery, extortion, statistical fraud, and criminal activity, including economic crime;

- In an orderly manner, collecting illegal arms and ammunition in the possession of the general population; tightening legislation concerning organized crime, especially armed gang activity;

- Placing special focus on resolving infamous crimes that were committed in the past – the terrorist attack of October 27, 1999, other political assassinations, gasoline and gas import scams, and abuses committed in the course of privatization;

- Working persistently to return to the State Treasury funds embezzled from the people by the current authorities and certain businesses under their protection, and directing these funds principally to address social needs of the population;

- Participating actively in the global fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, money laundering, and illegal human trafficking;

- Prosecuting economic crimes to the fullest extent of the law, while ruling out witch hunts and redistribution of property;

- Sharply increasing the salaries of officers and employees of the Police, Security Service, Prosecutor’s Office, Tax Inspectorate, Customs Department, and judges, to help increase productivity and discourage the temptation to pursue illegal profit.

4. In the economic area, the principal challenges facing Armenia’s next leadership are to develop industry and ensure significant improvement in the quality of life of the general population. The following measures are planned, to pursue these goals:

- Improving governance; establishing the rule of law; adopting a new package of reforms; cracking down on shadow economic activity, or more accurately, eliminating the state racket.

- Consistently implementing the three fundamental principles of market economy – equal opportunities for businesses, free competition, and the inviolability of private property;

- Ensuring legality and full transparency in matters concerning privatization, the sale of public property and land, the organization of auctions and tenders, and the issuance of licenses and permits for construction work;

- Further developing tax legislation; expanding the tax base; ensuring equitable distribution of the tax burden; continuing the application of the Law on Simplified Tax; guaranteeing the return of advance tax payments and value added taxes collected by the State;

- Consistently pursuing anti-monopoly policies; asserting zero tolerance for quotas and monopolies on imports; applying heavy penalties, under law, against unfair competition or monopolistic conduct;

- Carrying out necessary measures toward stimulating industry, bearing in mind, in particular, the need to account for assets invested in founding capital as costs and exempt them from profit tax, as well as to end the practice of advance profit tax payments, and promote equality of interests of the domestic producer and the importer;

- Providing state support for high-tech industries, particularly for the development of products and services in the information and telecommunication areas, as well as the widespread introduction of affordable high-speed internet;

- Establishing an infrastructure for servicing the rural economy, including financing, agricultural services, irrigation, food processing, and market support systems; additional measures in support of agriculture include state assistance for mandatory crop insurance for farmers, VAT exemption on imported seed material, and excise tax exemption on diesel fuel, as well as regular state support for obtaining seeds, fertilizer, and purebred livestock;

- Reviewing banking legislation; in particular, expanding the mandate of the Central Bank Board against the disproportionate authority accorded to its Chairman; relaxing registration requirements for new banks; stimulating the development of investment funds, the stock market, and credit entities.

5. In the social area, priorities for Armenia’s new leadership are aimed at eradicating poverty, creating jobs, and increasing the birth rate, and include the following urgent measures:

- Ensuring consistent growth of the average real income of the population (the average salary by 20% annually, pensions by 30-40%), as well as providing state guarantees for the activity of private pension funds;

- Effective 2008, rapidly increasing one-time maternity benefits to 500,000 drams; increasing that amount to 1 million beginning with the third child, and 1.5 million beginning with the fifth child;



- Restructuring the Soviet-era savings of the population as state bonds, with half the repayment time and twice the repayment amount, compared to what was established by the law adopted in 2005;

- In contrast to the so-called elite construction boom, undertaking an extensive state-run social housing construction program, aimed at providing young or homeless families with apartments free of rent;

- Offering amnesty to over 20,000 young men who, as of January 1, 2005, have avoided military service and found refuge abroad; in the event of the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, carrying out a significant reduction of the Armed Forces and gradual transition to contract-based service;

- Increasing the role and presence of government programs in healthcare, education, and sciences; introducing credit and targeted financing systems; expanding the role of private capital; fully utilizing the potential of insurance and mortgage funds; implementing measures to regulate control the growth of college tuition rates; establishing a special government fund to facilitate the education of gifted students from Armenia abroad.

Thus, even by the most modest estimates, this Program on the Social and Economic Development of the Republic of Armenia for 2008-2012 plans to double the country’s Gross Domestic Product, triple the National Budget and the average salary, and quadruple the average pension. It is assumed that in the event of the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the lifting of the blockades and the opening of the Armenian-Turkish border, far more impressive results may be expected.

***

Any election, while not necessarily creating divisions, leads to a certain tension within the society. The future President, therefore, must take serious steps, from his very first day in Office, to mitigate that tension and create an atmosphere of tolerance and national accord. I assure that if elected, I shall strictly be guided by this understanding.

January 6, 2008