Wednesday, June 10 2020 16:34

ArmInfo. Armenia improved its  position by 15 points in the Global Peace Index 2020, ranking 99th  among 163 countries. This is evidenced by the data of the published  report.

Thus, Armenia yields only to Georgia in terms of indicators in the  region, which is in 95th place (+4 positions). Azerbaijan is on the  120th  (+12 positions), Turkey - 150th (+2 positions) and Iran 142th   (- 5 positions).

The partners of Armenia in the EAEU have the following results:  Belarus - 94th(+4), Russia remained stable at 154th, Kazakhstan -  70th (-4th position), Kyrgyzstan - 93rd (+2).

According to the source, Iceland remains the most peaceful country in  the world, a position it has held since 2008. It is joined at the top  of the index by New Zealand, Austria, Portugal, and Denmark.   Afghanistan is the least peaceful country in the world for the second  year in a row, followed by Syria, Iraq, South Sudan and Yemen. All,  except Yemen, have been ranked amongst the five least peaceful since  at least 2015.

According to the report: <Azerbaijan and Armenia recorded the first  and second largest improvements in peacefulness globally, primarily  owing to an improvement in neighbouring countries relations between  the two neighbours. The last major open conflict between the two was  the 'four-day war' in April 2016, where the dispute over the  geographical region of Nagorno-Karabakh led to an estimated 300-500  people killed. The success of the operational ceasefire in 2017-2019  and the so-called 'velvet revolution' in Armenia in 2018 has  significantly improved relationships between the two countries.

Azerbaijan's improvement on the Ongoing Conflict domain was driven by  an improvement in its relationship with its neighbour Armenia. The  last significant open conflict between the two countries was in 2016,  when the ceasefire was broken and an estimated 300-500 people were  killed in the so-called 'four-day war'. After three years of relative  peace and an operational ceasefire in 2017-19, the Nagorno-Karabakh  conflict has stabilised.

Armenia had the second largest increase in peacefulness on the 2020  GPI, with only its neighbouring country Azerbaijan having a larger  improvement. It rose 15 places in the rankings and is now ranked  among the 100 most peaceful countries, owing to a large improvement  in relations with neighbouring countries, as well as a substantial  fall in its incarceration rate. The largest improvement occurred on  the Ongoing Conflict domain, with improvements in relations with  neighbouring countries and a fall in deaths from internal conflict.  The primary driver of these changes was an improved relationship with  neighbouring Azerbaijan, helped in part by Armenia's 'velvet  revolution', and a stabilisation of the Nagarno-Karabakh conflict.   On the Safety and Security domain, Armenia's incarceration rate  improved significantly, falling over 35 per cent over the past three  years to 76 prisoners per 100,000 people. This fall means that  Armenia now has the lowest incarceration rate in the Russia and  Eurasia region. There was also an improvement in its homicide rate,  political instability, and a fall in terrorism impact. Despite these  improvements, Armenia did record deteriorations in some indicators.  Although political instability improved, it came at the expense of  increasing government interference, resulting in a deterioration in  Armenia's political terror scale score. There was also a  deterioration in the Militarisation domain. In contrast to the  improvement in Azerbaijan, weapons imports rose significantly, as did  military expenditure as a percentage of GDP.>

To note, that the authors of the report noted: <In addition to  presenting the findings from the 2020 GPI, this year's report  includes an analysis of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on peace,  including Positive Peace: the attitudes, institutions and structures  that create and sustain peaceful societies. It examines how the  impact of the pandemic, and in particular its economic consequences  will increase the risk of severe deteriorations in Positive Peace  over the next few years, and also examines which countries are best  placed to recover from the shock. The results this year show that the  level of global peacefulness deteriorated, with the average country  score falling by 0.34 per cent. This is the ninth deterioration in  peacefulness in the last twelve years, with 81 countries improving,  and 80 recording deteriorations over the past year. The 2020 GPI  reveals a world in which the conflicts and crises that emerged in the  past decade have begun to abate, only to be replaced with a new wave  of tension and uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic>.

The Global Peace Index (GPI) has been compiled by the Institute of  Economics and Peace for 14 years. The index is based on three  categories - "Protracted Conflicts", <Security and Safety> and  <Militarization>, - including a total of 23 indicators, which assess  the country's internal and external peace. Among these indicators are  the perception of crime in society, the number of murders and  prisoners per 100 thousand people, the availability of weapons, the  number of police officers and the security service per 100 thousand  people, participation in armed conflicts and the number of victims in  them, military expenses, political stability, intensity of internal  conflicts, etc. The authors of the index also analyze the economic  value of peacefulness, trends and development paths of peaceful  societies. The current study covers 163 countries with 99.7% of the  world's population.