NGOs complain about decline in democracy level in South Caucasus

The authorities of the South-Caucasian countries actively use administrative resources for preservation of the leading positions. This was stated by participants in the civil hearings, representing the NGOs and political organizations of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia.

On December 3, in Georgia, the office of the NGO "Caucasian House" hosted a conference within the programme of the "Symbolic Caucasian trial on human rights and civil proceedings for sake of democracy in the Caucasian countries", organized by the "Caucasian Centre for Civil Hearings", the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports.

According to Georgy Kanashvili, the director of the NGO "Caucasian House", three South-Caucasian states are developing in different directions: Georgia towards integration with the European and North-Atlantic institutions, Armenia in the direction of the Eurasian cooperation, and due to its natural resources, Azerbaijan can adhere to the policy, independent from Europe and from Russia.

The Armenian authorities are not legitimate, since they did not receive a majority of votes at the elections. This opinion was voiced by Yuri Manvelyan, the editor-in-chief of the "Epress.am". He also mentioned that the coming to power of President Serzh Sargsyan was accompanied by mass protests in 2008, and in 2013, the voting at the presidential election took place with violations.

The Azerbaijani authorities remove the opposition from the political field by prosecution of its activists or expulsion of them from the country. This was noted by Shakhin Rzaev, a staff member of the Baku branch of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).

According to Tamar Kordzaya, a member of the Republican Party, who referred to the report of the NGOs involved in monitoring of the elections, including the "Association of Young Lawyers", "Transparency International Georgia", and others, this autumn, in Georgia, the parliamentary elections were accompanied by numerous violations.

Besides, citizens of all three countries noted a decline in the democratic processes in Southern Caucasus.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.