"I’M HAPPY TO BE RECEIVED BY ROBERT KOCHARYAN TOMORROW"

A1+
[05:32 pm] 15 January, 2007

The RA Foreign Ministry has not yet sent an invitation to the OSCE in
order to send an observing mission to Armenia for the Parliamentary
elections.

Nevertheless, Ambassador Christian Strohal, Director of the Office of
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) arrived in Armenia
today in order to meet high officials of Armenia.

"The RA Government still has time to send the invitation. We are
here in order to discuss the ranges of cooperation between the OSCE
and Armenia. We must discuss both law and practical issues, as well
as those referring to the observers mission", said ODIHR Director
Christian Strohal to "A1+" after the meeting with Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan. He found it difficult to inform how many observers
will arrive in Armenia.

Asked by "Haykakan Zhamanak" if it is possible to organize free and
fair elections in Armenia when there are no independent TV companies,
Mr. Strohal answered, "You know that monitoring of Mass media forms
part of the monitoring of the elections. Of course we would like
the pluralism of the pre-election campaign to be found in the Mass
Media too".

By the way, this is the second visit of the ODIHR Director to
Armenia. "Armenia is the only country in Europe where there is snow",
he said.