U.S. ENVOY DISMAYED BY KOCHARIAN SNUB
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 18 2006

The U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe expressed on Wednesday dismay at President Robert Kocharian’s
refusal to meet her on her first-ever visit to Armenia that focused
on democratization and other political reforms.

Ambassador Julie Finley, who arrived in Yerevan on Tuesday, said she
received assurances from other Armenian officials that next year’s
Armenian parliamentary elections will be free and fair. She also urged
Yerevan to allow the OSCE to monitor the entire electoral process.

"I am very, very disappointed I did not have even a brief meeting
with your president," Finley said. "Usually in my travels [to OSCE
member states] I do meet with the head of state."

Asked about the official reason for Kocharian’s apparent snub, she
said: "His schedule was full. I asked."

Kocharian, according to his press service, held two meetings on
Wednesday, receiving a delegation of Russian parliamentarians and the
outgoing head of the World Bank office in Yerevan, Roger Robison. He
similarly failed to meet Britain’s visiting Minister for Europe Geoff
Hoon last week. Both Britain and the United States had declined to
officially congratulate Kocharian on his hotly disputed victory in
the last Armenian presidential election criticized as undemocratic
by OSCE observers.

Finley spoke to RFE/RL and the Mediamax news agency after meeting
with other senior Armenian officials, including Justice Minister
David Harutiunian, Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian, Deputy
Foreign Minister Arman Kirakosian and the chairman of the Central
Election Commission, Garegin Azarian. She also met civil society
representatives campaigning for political reform in the country.

The diplomat said the officials assured her that the Armenian
authorities will do their best to ensure the freedom and fairness
of the 2007 elections. "I am willing to accept in good faith what
certain people in the government so far have told me, just as I am
perfectly willing to take in good faith what certain people outside
of the government have been telling me," she said. "I am trying to
balance everything."

"We all want these elections to run right because these elections
are one of the four main pillars of a democracy," Finley said. "And
I am assuming that I am in a country that has decided it wants to be
a true democracy."

Officials from the European Union have already warned that a repeat
of serious vote irregularities would seriously undermine Armenia’s
efforts to forge closer links with the EU and its participation in
the bloc’s European Neighborhood Policy program in particular .

Finley, who worked for the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy
before taking over the U.S. mission at the OSCE’s Vienna headquarters
last year, would not be drawn on what the consequences would be for
U.S.-Armenian relations. She seemed worried about the fact that the
authorities in Yerevan have yet to officially invite the OSCE to
monitor the 2007 elections.

"The assurance that the government of Armenia has been elected freely
and fairly to the international community is very, very important for
Armenia," Finley said. "The OSCE is the gold standard for monitoring
elections.

"They are coming to the United States to monitor our mid-term elections
in November. Why the heck shouldn’t they be over here to monitor the
Armenian elections?"

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress