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.