Opinion survey of Yerevan students launched with support of OSCE Office

YEREVAN, 29 August, 2001 (OSCE) - A survey that presents a picture of the judgments, attitudes and assessment of political developments in Armenia, as seen by students in Yerevan, was published yesterday with the support of the OSCE. The students were chosen as the target group for the research on the basis that they represented the elite of society and - in five to ten years time - would become the principal decision-makers in the country.

The survey was carried out by the Association of Youth Problems Research, in co-operation with a public initiative called 'Harmonious World'. A total of 275 students - out of about 50,000 in the city - were interviewed, drawn from five state and seven private universities.

Publication of the survey, in the form of a book edited by Samvel Manukyan, has been supported by the OSCE Office in Yerevan. It was made possible by a financial contribution from the Government of the United Kingdom. One of the key tasks of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, as part of its mandate, is to establish contacts and co-operation with research institutions, academia and youth.

Welcoming representatives of civil society and media to an event to launch the book, Ambassador Roy Reeve, Head of the Office, noted that the survey would be very useful to the international community: "The findings reflect youth attitudes towards significant ethno-political aspects of the country, as well as the region", he said.

Detailed opinion polls were conducted to discover students' attitudes towards external politics, characteristics of nationalism, and how information is perceived. The opinion researchers also sought to learn the students' evaluation of the priorities of the power holders in decision making on national issues, their evaluation of current problems of Armenia, their attitudes to Armenia's government structure, their preferences for presidential and parliamentary forms of governance, as well as for the one-party or multi-party political systems and their attitudes to emigration.

The OSCE Office in Yerevan was established in February 2000 to promote the implementation of OSCE principles and commitments as well as the co-operation of the Republic of Armenia within the OSCE framework, in all OSCE dimensions, including the human, political, economic and environmental aspects of security and stability.

--

For further information please contact Ms. Gohar Avagyan, Information Officer, OSCE Office in Yerevan, tel.: +374 1 54 10 62, +374 1 54 58 45; e-mail: gohar@osce.am.