KOCHARIAN SHUNS TOP OSCE OFFICIAL
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 6 2007

President Robert Kocharian declined on Tuesday to meet with a visiting
high-level official from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe who planned to discuss his government’s conduct of the
upcoming parliamentary elections.

Goran Lennmarker, chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, said
he was scheduled to meet Kocharian at the end of a two-day visit to
Armenia that was part of his ongoing regional tour.

"I should have met him this morning," Lennmarker told RFE/RL. "But
I was told that he is out of Yerevan. I don’t know where."

However, Kocharian’s spokesman, Victor Soghomonian, insisted that
such a meeting was never planned and officially confirmed.

Soghomonian said Lennmarker was informed beforehand that the Armenian
leader will be on vacation and can not receive him during his stay
in Yerevan.

Kocharian similarly shunned the U.S. ambassador at the OSCE
headquarters in Vienna, Julie Finley, when she visited Yerevan
last October. The diplomat was "very, very disappointed" with the
apparent snub.

Both Finley and Lennmarker discussed the unfolding preparations for
the May 12 elections which the West says will put Armenia’s democratic
credentials to the greatest test yet. The OSCE assembly chief discussed
the matter with Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, parliament speaker
Tigran Torosian and other senior Armenian lawmakers on Monday. They
assured him that they will do their best to ensure that the polls
are more democratic than the ones held until now.

Lennmarker was confident that Yerevan will formally ask the OSCE to
send an vote monitoring mission. The first OSCE observers will arrive
in Armenia in early April, he said.

OSCE observers reported serious fraud during the previous Armenian
parliamentary and presidential elections, giving weight to opposition
claims that they were rigged by the authorities. The Armenian
opposition has used the criticism in challenging Kocharian’s
legitimacy.