VZCZCXRO6373
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHYE #1364/01 2751055
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 021055Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4044
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 001364 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CARC 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2016 
TAGS: PGOV KWMN AM
SUBJECT: MEN PARTICIPATE IN NDI WOMEN'S FORUM FOR THE FIRST 
TIME 
 
REF: YEREVAN 946 
 
Classified By: Poloff Masha Herbst for reasons 1.4 (b, d). 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (C) The National Democratic Institute (NDI)'s fifth 
Women's Forum featured male speakers for the first time.  The 
male politicians -- one pro-government, one opposition -- had 
mastered some progressive sound bites, but were far from 
fully egalitarian.  Nonetheless, there has been some 
progress.  Since March, 22 political parties have committed 
to increasing the percentage of women on their political 
party lists from the 15 percent mandated by the Electoral 
Code to 25 percent, and an opposition parliament member has 
agreed to introduce the initiative in the National Assembly 
in mid-October.  END SUMMARY 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
MEN ARE FROM MARS, WOMEN SHOULD VOTE FOR WOMEN 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶2. (U) Though ostensibly from opposite sides of the political 
spectrum, Hrayr Karapetian of the governing coalition 
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun) party and 
Khorosov Harutyunian of the opposition Christian Democratic 
Union had essentially the same message for the forum 
participants: Women's political participation is a good 
thing, but not necessarily here in Armenia, not necessarily 
now, and not necessarily outside of women's forums.  "We 
should create an environment for women to become active in 
politics," Karapetian said.  He followed that statement with 
an impassioned speech about the need to preserve Armenian 
traditions and the "unique definition of the Armenian woman." 
 (COMMENT: Webster's dictionary somehow fails to elucidate 
this definition for us.  END COMMENT) 
 
¶3. (U) Harutyunian took a less progressive view, saying the 
first task for Armenian society was to understand whether 
women's political participation were really necessary, and 
adding that many Armenians would say it was not necessary. 
He went on to say that there were "objective reasons" that 
kept the number of women in politics low, such as the fact 
that a woman's place really was in the home.  On the other 
hand, he said, perhaps if there were more women in power, 
there would be less corruption.  Harutyunian singled out one 
forum attendee, Ruzanna Khachatrian, an opposition party 
politician who ran for local government against a powerful 
incumbent in a central Yerevan district in 2005.  "I myself 
did not vote for her," Harutyunian said, "but you women 
should have."  Both Harutyunian and Karapetian's parties have 
agreed to the Women's Forum's 25 percent quota initiative, 
(see paragraph 4 below), but both men advocated against it, 
saying that increased political participation among women 
should be organic, and that society isn't ready for it.  The 
two men conveniently left before the question and answer 
period brought to light the women's views on the subject -- 
which in fact were quite mixed. 
 
¶4. (U) The Women's Forum came up with a quota initiative in 
March, to expand and give teeth to a legal requirement that 
women be included on the party lists.  The Electoral Code now 
requires that 15 percent of each party's proportional 
representation (party list) candidates for the National 
Assembly be women.  The law does not specify that the women 
be high enough on the lists actually to have a meaningful 
shot at getting elected.  This rule created an instant 
tradition that the bottom 15 percent of every party's list 
(e.g. the candidates who will never be elected short of an 
unprecedented electoral landslide) is comprised of women. 
The Women's Forum's 25 percent initiative stipulates that 
every fourth name on each party's list should be a woman. 
Twenty-two parties have promised to observe this principle 
when drawing up their lists for the May 2007 elections, but 
implementation of this voluntary rule remains to be seen. 
Among those who have not signed on to the initiative: the 
Republican Party, which is the dominant member of the ruling 
coalition, and opposition Orinats Yerkir. 
 
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POLITICAL CONFIDENCE VARIES AMONG WOMEN 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Reactions were divided among forum participants, who 
included roughly 150 women political party members, NGO 
staff, businesswomen and government employees.  Ruzanna 
Khachatrian, perhaps miffed at Harutyunian's dismissal of her 
as a candidate worthy only of women's votes, railed back at 
 
YEREVAN 00001364  002 OF 002 
 
 
the by-now absent party leader during the comment portion of 
the event, eliciting laughter when she said it was "just like 
a man to say something about women, and then escape." 
Khachatrian, who is press secretary to the People's Party of 
Armenia's Stepan Demirchian, disagreed that women lose 
elections because their 
demographic doesn't step up to the ballot box.  She, and many 
other women, blamed unfair elections for the lack of women in 
government.  Khachatrian also was one of the more grounded 
and sober women who spoke.  She said that, while it certainly 
wasn't a bad thing that 22 parties had accepted the 25 
percent quota, the one party that mattered, the ruling 
Republicans, had not.  Khachatrian said that forum members 
could celebrate their success only after the Republicans 
accepted the quota. (NOTE: According to NDI Co-Director 
Taline Sanassarian, that won't happen anytime soon.  Not long 
after NDI approached the parties to accept the non-binding 
quota initiative, a woman MP from the Republicans paid a 
visit to Sanassarian and told her that the Republicans would 
never adopt such a "stupid" initiative.  END NOTE.) 
 
¶6. (C) While Khachatrian is among a small percentage of women 
who believe that Armenian women are ready for political 
participation right now, many others are less certain, 
Sanassarian said.  She said the bulk of the forum members 
believed women were not yet ready to participate, or that 
only some women were ready to participate.  She said despite 
the lack of widespread political confidence, the Women's 
Forum had made great strides in creating a sustainable 
network of women who are interested in the political process, 
and in building confidence to inspire some of them to 
consider becoming political leaders. 
 
¶7. (C) The 25 percent quota initiative is one example of the 
success of the forum, Sanassarian said, even if it doesn't 
make its way into the Electoral Code, because it was an 
organic product of the Women's Forum.  The opposition 
Democratic Party's Aram Sargsian has agreed to propose the 
initiative as a change in the Electoral Code in mid-October. 
Sanassarian also said that, whether or not the initiative 
becomes law, the number of women in politics will increase if 
the 22 parties actually follow through on their promise to 
put women in every fourth slot on their party rolls. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶8. (C) Though the male party leaders said some of the right 
things, their underlying attitude towards the role of women 
in politics was clear, and it reflects the mentality of a 
majority of voting public.  According to the results of an 
August 2006 Gallup Poll commissioned by the International 
Republican Institute, many others agree: Nearly two-thirds of 
poll respondents -- 53 percent of which were women -- said 
that, all other things being equal, they would vote for a man 
over a woman, while only six percent said they would vote for 
the woman, and 28 percent said it did not matter.  Given the 
biases ingrained in Armenian society, the chance that the 
National Assembly will adopt the 25 percent initiative is 
slim.  Small but substantive change is possible, however, if 
the parties that signed on to the initiative honor their 
promises. 
GODFREY