Freedom of Information Center of Armenia.

“Everything is centralized in Yerevan. If everything goes the same way, Yerevan will turn into a city-state”, - during the workshop organized by the Freedom of Information Center of Armenia (FOICA) on April 27, 2006 Hakob Tovmasyan, Mayor of Ararat, said.

Overall 36 representatives of regional and municipal government of Ararat Region, heads of village administrations and village elders gathered in Ararat to discuss the practice of utilization of the FOI Law with FOICA and RTI. Ms. Lilit Simonyan, FOICA expert, mentioned the importance of openness of the information holder agencies, and Mrs. Shushan Doydoyan, FOICA President, brought examples of Armenian and international practice while speaking about the role and importance of FOI Law of the RA for solving the community problems.

The questions asked by workshop participants indicated that many of them were aware of the FOI Law. Ms. Marine Hakobyan, RA National Assembly expert, informed the participants about 13 groups of information which should be published by local government at least once a year: A number of participants admitted that they had not published the mentioned information and promised to do so as soon as possible and to work openly and transparently in the future.