Armenian foreign minister justifies president’s congratulations to Yanukovych
Arminfo
4 Dec 04
YEREVAN
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan does not believe that
President Robert Kocharyan hurried to congratulate [former Ukrainian
prime minister and presidential candidate] Viktor Yanukovych on his
election as Ukrainian president.
Speaking on Armenia’s Kentron TV recently, Oskanyan said that
Kocharyan did not make any mistake [by congratulating
Yanukovych]. Kocharyan’s move was justified from a purely legal point
of view, he said.
“I can provide a counter-argument: A political decision was made by
the countries that did not congratulate Yanukovych after the Ukrainian
Central Electoral Commission released the official results of the
elections. Armenia did so on a legal basis,” Oskanyan said.
Oskanyan also said that Armenia does not view the Ukrainian elections
as a confrontation between the West and Russia. He said that official
Yerevan is utterly indifferent to what the rest of the world thinks
about the Ukrainian elections. This kind of approach is based on the
Armenian foreign policy of complementarity. The world’s media have
deliberately presented the confrontation between the two Ukrainian
presidential candidates as a fight between the West and Russia.
“The radical views that Yanukovych is going to lead Ukraine only
towards Russia while Yushchenko will adopt an extremely pro-Western
course are baseless. He who is elected the next Ukrainian president
cannot change the course completely. There are no other alternatives
to this. Ukraine cannot break off its relations with Russia. Nor can
it stop the process of integration into Europe. This is a
geopolitical reality,” Oskanyan said.