Freedom House: Armenia democracy situation unchanged for 4th yearApril 14, 2016 - 17:03 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Freedom House published the 21st edition of Nations in Transit 2016, an annual report on democracy in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Eurasia. According to the report, Armenia’s democracy score stands at 5.36 points in a scale of 1 to 7, with 1 representing the highest level of democratic progress and 7 representing the lowest. The country's government is characterized as a semi - consolidated authoritarian regime, with the democracy situation remaining unchanged since 2013. The survey is based on several categories, including national democratic governance (Armenia scored 5.75 points), electoral process (5.75), civil society (3.75), independent media (5.75), local democratic governance (5.75), judicial framework and independence (5.50) and Corruption (5.25). Also included in the report was Azerbaijan, which was described as a consolidated authoritarian regime, with an overall democracy score of 6.86 points. Georgia, on the other hand, was named a transitional government or gybrid regime with an overall democracy score of 4.61 points. The NIT 2016 ratings reflect the period from January 1through December 31 2015. Top stories The number of state universities will be reduced from 23 to 8 by 2030, Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Zhanna Andreasyan has said. From September 21 to November 11, a total of 2,820 Russians registered at a place of residence in Armenia, the police has said. The situation on the contact line between Karabakh and Azerbaijan was relatively stable overnight, the Defense Army says. Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has visited the southern Armenian province of Syunik, the Defense Ministry reported on March 18. Partner news | Russia warns Armenia against “falling into West’s trap” Zakharova maintained, however, that anything that will benefit the people of Armenia can only be welcomed. CSTO: Armenia has not participated in secretariat’s work recently Recently Armenia has not participated in the work of the secretariat of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov said. Meeting with U.S., EU not against third parties, says Armenia The meeting scheduled for April 5 is dedicated to strengthening of the Armenia-EU-US cooperation, Yerevan added. Ucom launches network modernization efforts in few regions of Armenia In particular, on March 28, the legacy Mobile Switching Subsystem will be replaced with a new one. |