Republican Senators Chuck Hagel and Norm Coleman visited Armenia recently, and in between shopping for rugs and drinking Armenian cognac, apparently mistook the place for a democracy.
cross posted at http://www.democracyguy.com
From EurasiaNet -
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav062205.shtml
Kocharian's government drew praise from two US senators who visited Yerevan recently. Sen. Charles Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, professed to be "very impressed with the democratic reforms and economic development that have taken place in Armenia." Earlier, Sen. Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, downplayed Armenia's troubled history of tainted elections. "Elections alone don't make democracy," he told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on May 31.
Coleman's remarks seemed at odds with the strong US criticism of the last Armenian presidential election in 2003. The State Department said at the time that Armenian authorities "missed an important opportunity to advance democratization."
Before you think Coleman and Hagel were either drunk or asleep the entire trip, it's important to note that the trip was sponsored by the Armenian Assembly of America, the powerhouse lobbying group of diasporan Armenians. According to a recent study by another Armenian lobbying group, Armenian Americans gave over $1.5 million dollars to Republican candidates in the 2004 cycle. The study isn't available in its entirety online, but I would be shocked if Hagel and Coleman weren't two recipients of this largesse. They wouldn't be flying to Armenia out of pure curiosity.
The Armenian diaspora in America long ago put its clout behind the military coup that put the current president Robert Kocharian in place. One of the more pathetic features of Armenia's never ending dispute with neighboring Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabakh is this constant battle to portray Armenia as more democratic than Azerbaijan, which is like saying a rotten egg is better than skunk roadkill.
For this purpose, the "democracy is a process not an event" horseshit suits them just fine. And American politicians are just petty enough to let a campaign contribution and a trip to buy some nice rugs and trinkets in Armenia pull the wool over their eyes. Democracy may be a process, but it can only begin with one thing...free elections. Period. That has yet to occur in Armenia, and isn't helped along by American senators looking the other way.