Sona Ayvazyan, Deputy Director of Transparency International Anti-corruption Center took part in a press conference and discussion on "Issues of concern to the public ahead of the presidential elections (army, environmental and urban issues), their solutions suggested in the platforms of the presidential candidates" which was held in Media center on February 13, 2013. The event brought together Levon Barseghyan, President of "Asparez" Journalists' Club, Artur Sakunts, Head of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly Vanadzor Office, Vardan Geravetyan, member of "Our City" Civic Initiative and Davit Sanasaryan, Heritage Party representative.

In her presentation, Sona Ayvazyan noted that incumbent President Sargsyan failed to reflect Teghut issue neither in his 2008, nor this year's platform. Instead, he took a populist step by using green leaf during his campaigns, as well as he had shots of eco-activists' struggle in Mashtots Park involved in his campaign videos.

She also mentioned that that the key achievement of civic initiatives was citizens' engagement, which unfortunately did not bring to systemic changes. "Instead of giving solution to the issues we revealed, the authorities think of developing mechanisms to struggle against us and set up GONGOs. GONGOs threaten civil society, which we must foresee," concluded Sona Ayvazyan.

The participants also discussed problems in the army and addressed a number of urban development issues.