Firstly, the parliamentary election was an improvement over past votes. No, it wasn’t democratic, but there was some progress in relative terms. It’s now up to the international community and civil society to build upon that as well as to identify and resolve other issues that were raised instead.

Coming back to RFE/RL, though, as you now realize, broadcasts will not be stopped, but they will be restricted and not have nationwide coverage. That’s also assuming that people here and in the international community don’t give up and pressure Public Radio to sign a contract. That’s what still can be done. Might fail, might not, but you never know.

Further, I don’t believe Armenia is a dictatorship. Actually, it is officially considered a hybrid regime with elements of both authoritarian and democratic rule combined. It’s a managed democracy which the West is happy with as long as the democratic aspects increase slowly over time. Well, who decides that? For sure, not the government, but certainly society can and that’s what will change things here.

When is another issue, but basically that’s how democracies evolved in the West. Don’t expect Armenia to be any different and to have democracy “imposed” from outside. However, show the outside world that there are those who truly believe in democracy, freedom of speech, human rights and all that, and there will be some kind of support. Besides, RFE/RL isn’t off the air and won’t be, although as I always say, there should be no room for complacency.

This story hasn’t ended yet, and in any normal democratic society, people would still struggle to prevent Public Radio from stopping RFE/RL broadcasts. Similarly, they’d also keep an eye on things to make sure nothing else happens later. Like, for example, the re-introduction of the original bill. Anyway, it’s up to people here. It always was. Plain and simple.

(unfortunately all the stories are in Armenian only)
http://www.media.am/video/text.asp?n=267
http://www.media.am/lraqax/text.asp?n=1848
http://www.media.am/lraqax/text.asp?n=1982

This is of course a very tiny bit of Radio Liberty broadcasting, however, Aram Mkrtchyan was also sure, that they won’t have a problem with broadcasting Radio Liberty in the future as well. As to the question, whether they’d take on broadcasting all of RFE/RL newscasts, Aram said the question is irrelevant at this point. I understand, that this is because they have not received a specific offer from RFE/RL yet, so he can’t say anything for sure. Let’s wait and see!