The Perception Gap

24 November 2005
TOL
by Haroutiun Khachatrian

A recent comparative study shows that residents of the three South Caucasus republics have low levels of tolerance for other ethnic groups and people, with a limited understanding of the role of democracy in resolving conflicts.

The study, “Tolerance and Regional Peace Building,” written by Anahit Mkrtchian, a Yerevan-based independent scholar, examined perceptions of democracy and tolerance levels in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan, based on data culled by public opinion pollsters in 2004. The findings, released in Yerevan on 20 September, showed that only 14.6 percent of the Armenian capital’s inhabitants and 9.7 percent of Tbilisi’s and Baku’s residents considered democracy-building to be important for their countries. [...].
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Correspondingly, trust in parliaments, courts, and political parties ranked below 50 percent in Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. Of all three cases, Yerevan was distinctive as the city with the lowest trust toward official structures. Only 16 percent of the 1,500 Yerevan respondents reported trusting the courts, while in Tbilisi and Baku, the Georgian and Azeri capitals, respectively, the percent recorded was twice that number. Belief in the police’s ability to protect city residents was also low: less than 20 percent of Yerevan and Tbilisi respondents said that they trusted law-enforcement agents, while in Baku that number reached a mere 41 percent.
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Military and executive leaders enjoy the greatest degree of trust in all three Caucasian capitals, the study found. Over 70 percent of respondents in Baku, Tbilisi and Yerevan expressed trust in the army. Similarly, 84.8 percent of Baku and 86.4 percent of Tbilisi inhabitants expressed belief in their countries’ presidents. By March 2005, those ratings had dipped to 62 percent for Azeri President Ilham Aliev and 76 percent for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

In Yerevan, by contrast, only 30.3 percent of the capital’s population trusted President Robert Kocharian. That number had increased by more than 15 percentage points by March 2005, when 45 percent of respondents said they trusted the Armenian leader.
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At the same time, while trust in executive leaders was high in Baku and Tbilisi, considerable skepticism existed in all three capitals about the role of non-governmental organizations and other civil society groups and media. Again, Yerevan stood out with comparatively lower trust in media and NGOs. [...] NGOs, in particular, are often seen as a source of additional income for current government officials, while NGOs and media are seen as a safety net for unemployed intelligentsia.
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Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.