The Messenger, Georgia
Jan 21 2005

Opposition complains to Americans

As the Armenian newspaper Aravot (Morning) reports, experts of the
U.S.-based Marshal Fund met with the representatives of the political
and economic circles of Armenia. Within the framework of the Marshal
Fund program, a delegation of U.S. political experts is Armenia on a
fact-finding visit.
Late last week, the members of the delegation held several meetings.
As the paper writes, “If pro-imperial MPs stated during the meeting
that Armenia is the most democratic country in the Caucasus region,
than the opposition MPs expressed the opposite views, pointing at the
violation of elementary democratic norms.”
The only thing in which the sides agreed, the paper states, is that
the United States and the West should pay more serious attention to
the region, particularly, to the democratic processes in the South
Caucasus republics.
The representatives of the Marshal Fund were interested in two
issues, the paper states, the democratic situation in Armenia and the
attitude of Armenian opposition toward the introduction of European
and Western value systems in the country.
Opposition representatives assessed the level of the democracy in
Armenia as “very low”. The representatives of the “Marshal Fund” were
also interested in the supporter of which valuable system is Armenian
opposition. As for the relations with Iran, according to the
opposition representatives, this is neighboring country of Armenia
and that it is necessary to have some normal deal with them.