OSKANIAN AGAIN ISSUES ELECTION WARNING
By Hovannes Shoghikian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
March 21 2007

Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian reiterated on Wednesday his warnings
that Armenia will face "very bad consequences" in the international
arena if it fails to ensure that its approaching parliamentary
elections are democratic.

"We need fair elections like bread and water to be able to correctly
and legally manage our next decade," he said.

Oskanian warned throughout last year that fresh vote rigging would
cause the country "not only moral but also material damage." It was an
apparent reference to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional
aid promised to Yerevan by the United States and the European Union
in return for a clean ballot.

Oskanian went further on Wednesday, warning of possible ramifications
for Armenia’s international standing and its ability to secure a
pro-Armenian solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "If we fail
to hold normal elections, there may be cases where we will be stung
in such a way that we won’t be able to offset the damage," he told
a new conference. The U.S. State Department’s recent reference to
Karabakh as an Armenian-occupied territory was a clear indication of
such danger, he said.

"Armenia continues to occupy the Azerbaijani territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding Azerbaijani territories," the
State Department said in its latest human rights report. Armenian
opposition leaders have blamed President Robert Kocharian and his
government for the "anti-Armenian" statement.

According to Oskanian, State Department officials subsequently admitted
"factual errors" in the statement. "During our discussions the State
Department admitted that that was an obvious mistake on their part,
and if they manage to overcome bureaucratic hurdles, they will try
to make a correction in that document," he said.