It is hard to know what social change taking place today will be the most significant in the long term. It is probably foolish to speculate on the lists of candidates for serious consideration, but raising one issue to the fore now might well affect the outcome in the next century: Women. It took almost a hundred years for women in the United States, and many other nations around the world, to get the vote once they started organizing in the 18th century. It is likely that -- even with models of women in the public sphere firmly in place, even with formal promise by most nations and international organizations of note -- it will take many years to change the conditions that most women live under most of the time. And the status of women is directly linked to the strength of their families and communities.
One of the simplest steps in this new age of democracy is getting women to vote. It doesn't necessarily take millions everywhere when electoral districts that are relatively evenly divided can be won by only a few votes. Even though all women don't share the same views, they do share many, and when they are enough of the vote, candidates will compete for their support. When women vote they also encourage the few women who have braved that path before them and been elected to office, and remind political parties of their interests and their influence.
Many factors can intervene in getting voters to the poll in any given election, but generally speaking, the less-well educated, the less-comfortable in speaking out, and the less familiar individuals are with the mechanics of casting a vote they are, the less likely they are to participate in an election. This is true for both men and women, but women are far more likely to fall into those categories. Learning how to vote -- and something about the issues and the candidates in any given election -- is much easier than changing one's status. While it is not the ideal of a fair representation in elected office, it is a lesson that would pay great dividends.
I am not advocating rushing the unwilling or the uneducated to the poll, but most political issues are not rocket science, and most adults can understand the basic choices to be made if given an opportunity to hear the pros and cons of the issues. Women, particularly, will not vote if they don't feel "qualified" to make a choice.
Much of this came home to me recently, when I attended a conference sponsored by an NGO (ELS Independent Research Center) and the League of Women Voters of the United States in Azerbaijan, an ancient Eurasian land bordered by the Caspian Sea, Iran, Armenia, Georgia and Russia. In modern times, it was a Soviet state with a strong memory of its two and a half years as a democracy after World War I. It carries the best of the Soviet experience moving forward in its commitment to secular government (it is a majority Shia Muslim nation with a mix of Sunnis, Christian, Jews -- some of whom go back 2,500 years -- and Zoroastrians). It has a legal commitment to equality for women. As one of oldest oil and gas producing countries in the world, it also has resources. It exists in a dangerous part of the world, but has strong ties to the West and is closely allied to Turkey, the United States and even Israel.
The purpose of the conference was to promote community-level education of women on public issues and their increased participation in voting. It was held in Ganja City, near an uneasy Armenian border, a five hour drive from the capital city Baku. Most of the participants came from the Ganja region, which bears a closer resemblance to old Russia (if not more ancient times when it was a stop on the Silk Road), than Baku which looks more and more like a Western city where the ancient past is not quite so visible. Transportation in the country is improving, but there did not seem to be much travel between regions either way.
The conference brought together representatives from NGOs, academia, and a number of people -- men and women -- representing the Executive Authority as well as local and municipal governments. The purpose of the meeting -- to raise the issue of women's participation in elections -- was not initially shared by all attendees. Some feared that increasing the women's would decrease the influence of men, but appreciation for the significance of the need to create conditions for equal participation grew substantially over the weekend, in part, I would like to think, after hearing about the history of women's suffrage in the United States when early fears of the terrible things women might do if they had the vote faded quickly.
The communiqué from the conference called for women to get involved in parliamentary elections at all levels as observers and poll workers, as well as encouraging women to work in campaigns and - of course -- to run for public office. Raising expectations that they can achieve equality is an important step, but before it can be taken by more than a few exceptionally strong candidates, experience suggests that there is a need to build self-confidence of women for whom the public sphere is foreign territory and overcome the fear of voting.
Armenians made ethnical cleaning of Armenia from Jews, but even old Soviet era monuments to Holocaust is the subject for abuse:
2010:http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/society/news/55501/Holocaust_monument_desecrated_in_Yerevan
2007:http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/discrimination/reports.aspx?s=antisemitism&p=vandalism
2005: http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1057091.html
Now speaking about vandalism- as I said before, you azeris, are always kicking your own ass. Here is the prove-
http://shr.aaas.org/geotech/azerbaijan/azerbaijan.shtml,
http://www.scribd.com/full/40066142?access_key=key-y3i0pgel56imsudel3s page 11.
Another vandalism example in Glendale - http://asbarez.com/84115/glendale%E2%80%99s-st-mary%E2%80%99s-church-vandalized/
Brilliant examples are hundreds of Armenian churches in Azerbaijan that don’t exist now. The beautiful Armenian ancient monuments were becoming construction material for your new buildings. Here is the true vandalism. You know, you azeris, can pay anyone you want to create short-term reputation for you, but as it was said – it is only short term, until the end of oil era.
http://shr.aaas.org/geotech/azerbaijan/azerbaijan.shtml
Article is very well written. It is raising attention to very important issues and it shows objectively the importance of involving women in political activity.
Khodjaly massacre- Armenian nationalists make different forgeries and say that they are done by Azeri.
a)Here are photos which were done by journalists from all over the world, including US:
http://www.justiceforkhojaly.org/en/pages/about/photo-testimony/
b)The massacre was planned by Armenian military forces, leader of this operation was Armenia´s president Sarkisian:
"Before Khojali, the Azerbaijanis thought that they were joking with us, they thought that the Armenians were people who could not raise their hand against the civilian population. We were able to break that [stereotype]." "Sarkisian's account throws a different light on the worst massacre of the Karabakh war, suggesting that the killings may, at least in part, have been a deliberate act of mass killing as intimidation." (Thomas de Waal, "Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan through peace and war", New York & London: New York University Press, 2003, pp. 169-172)
c) Armenian military forces set up a trap for civilians from Khodjaly and they have never had a chance to leave the town as it is proved by Russian journalist: http://www.today.az/news/politics/67494.html
d) there are many eyewitness stories including American T. Goltz about atrocities made by Armenian military forces. Armenians cut off parts of faces, bodies, took off scalps, just like they did to Turks in different massacres 1890-1923.
(Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic by T. Goltz)
http://xocali.net – step by step tells the untrue story of “massacres” . The reality is that Azeris killed their compatriots to create a myth about their being a victim or more precisely to justify the coming of the President Heidar Aliev.
Lie n1: Sumgait pogroms – were organized by Armenian diaspora, the leader of those tragic events was Armenian Grigorian , which drugged other criminals and killed those people of Armenian nationality who did not want to support financially war in Karabakh. When Azeri understood what is going on they started to hide ethnic Armenians in their apartments. Thanks to this the number of victims was much less than it was planned by Armenian nationalists. I submit reference containing the copies of original documents from soviet archives. The investigation was done by Russians authorities http://www.sumgayit1988.com/
"There are maps or cartographs dating to the 1500s and 1600s revealing a geographical area with the spelling "Adirbeitzan", and other variations on the spelling. See Nicolas Sanson's 1654 map titled Etats De L'Empire Du Grande Seigneur Des Turqs ou Sultan des Ottomans, Paris, for this spelling. See also the 1593 cartograph by Cornelis De Jode entitled Natoliam Moderni dicunt tam partem quam Asiam minrem appelauere veteres... Turcia Turci Cive Imperii, Antwerp, or Frederick de Wit's Nova Persiae Armeniae Natoliae et Arabie, 1680, Amsterdam, for other variations."
“110 attacks have taken place in 38 cities of 21 countries. Out of these 110 attacks, 39 were armed, 70 with bombings and was an occupation. In these attacks, 42 diplomatic Turkish citizens and 4 foreigners have lost their lives, 15 Turks and 66 foreign nationals have been wounded”
The “ancient” , less than 100 years old Armenia, is motherland to ethnic Armenians which were acting within an organized crime enterprise and the part of the money obtained by robbery of American tax payers was used to support democrats ("Armenian Americans face $163 million Medicare scam charges". Medical Daily. October 15, 2010).
This explains why democrats B. Boxer and R. Menendez neglect interests of US and act as Armenia`s representatives in senate forcing US to send billions os dollars to Armenia, while native americans can not feed their families.
First of all Mattew Bryza is acused not only for illegal activities- like withholding the aid from the side for which it was provide for in favor of Azerbaijan (not billions- I know azeris are inclined to exaggerations, though without understanding the essence of problem. I am glad; you are always kicking your own “…”.
Second, not any country having problems of feeding its own population is supporting other countries (those programs are part of US foreign policy.
Third, Bryza was accused of unnecessary informal connections with azeri government and acceptance of gifts- the prove of letter one can find in azer press- they were commenting the fact in their ridiculous manner.
The Purpose of ASALA was to punish those responsible for loss of Western Armenian Territories (the huge part of Turkey and Azerbaijan now) and independence of Armenia from Soviet Regime.
And regarding ASALA (for information, included in 1980s in the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations), are you suggesting that an act of terrorism and mass slaughter can be justified by a perceived (and often perverted) notion of historical injustice or ethnopolitical irredentism?
US sends money to Armenia because Armenian diaspora pours money over Boxer and Menendez. The federal investigation of the medical fraud will show this too.
Defending terrorism and denying the fact that Armenia is probably the only country in the world which created so many terrorist organisations killing not only turks but also foreigners and children will not clean up Armenia from all crimes. Armenia did not condemn those terrorists ( Gayaneh is an example), it builds monuments for those murderers. More victims- bigger monument.
To understand Gayaneh´s comment you should know what Armenians think about their nation: http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=w1AFOPmfXEY
This is not a joke; Armenians really think that they are better, smarter and older than any other nation.
That explains why Armenia and Armenians were spreading fascism and terrorism before and after the birth of Armenian republic in 1918 (See S Weems research based on archives data http://www.elibrary.az/docs/erix.pdf).
Here are a few examples:
1. WWI – ethnic armenians massacre of over 1 million Turks in Ottoman Empire, (see S. Weems)
2. Armenian legions were helping to german Nazi to trace and kill Jews (Enno Meyer, A. J. Berkian,_Zwischen Rhein und Arax, 900
Jahre Deutsch-Armenische beziehungen_(Heinz Holzberg
Verlag-Oldenburg 1988), pp. 118/119.
3. 1905-1907, 1918-1920, 1948-1953 and 1988-1993 ethnic Armenians were burning alive, torturing and throwing to the sea alive Azeri women and children see Declaration 324 PACE: http://assembly.coe.int/Mainf.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc01/EDOC9066.htm.
4. Armenia is guilty of genocide against Azerbaijani civilians in Khodjaly: http://www.justiceforkhojaly.org/?p=media
5. Cultural genocide against Azerbaijan: War on Azerbaijan: Targetting Cultural Heritage (www.war-culture.az).
According to Gayaneh destroying thousands of Azerbaijans and Turkeys ancient heritage by Armenian nationalists shows that Armenian nation is "cultured". It does not surprise me.
Keith Abbot, British Consular in Persia, in the Memorandum on the Country of Azerbaijan in 1863 to Royal Geographical Society:
“The country known to the Persians as Azerbaijan is divided between them and Russia, the latter Power possessing about five-eighths of the whole, which may be roughly stated to cover an area of about 80,000 square miles (210,000 km2), or about the size of Great Britain; 50,000 square miles (130,000 km2) are therefore about the extent of the division belonging to Russia, and 30,000 of that which remains to Persia.
The Russian division is bounded on the north and north-east by the mountains of Caucasus, extending to the vicinity of Bakou on the Caspian. On the west it has the provinces of Imeritia, Mingrelia, Gooriel, and Ahkhiska (now belonging to Russia); on the east it has the Caspian Sea, and on the south the boundary is marked by the course of the River Arrass (Araxes) to near the 46 th parallel of longitude, thence by a conventional line across the plains of Moghan to the district of Talish, and by the small stream of Astura which flows to the Caspian through the latter country. In this area are contained the following territorial divisions: - Georgia or Goorjistan, comprising Kakhetty, Kartaliny, Somekhetty, Kasakh; the Mohammedan countries of Eriwan, Nakhshewan, Karabagh, Ghenja, Shirwan, Shekky, Shamachy, Bakou, Koobeh, Salian and a portion of Talish. Georgia is traversed by the River Koor (Cyrus)"
Anyways, I did not discuss politics, I only provided references, which I suggest that you and President.am review periodically before making claims or speculations distorting historical facts.