MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
—————————————— —-
PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
Government House # 2, Republic Square
Yerevan 0010, Republic of Armenia
Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: press@mfa.am

PRESS RELEASE

11-05-2007

Foreign Minister Oskanian Participates in the Session of CE Committee of
Ministers

Minister Oskanian participated in the 117th Session of the Council of Europe
Committee of Ministers. In his statement, Minister Oskanian recognized how
Armenia has changed during the years since Council of Europe membership, as
well as the evolution of the Council of Europe itself. He also referred to
the major domestic and foreign policy issues — the parliamentary elections
and the resolution process of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The Session, held in Strasbourg on May 11, 2007, included several agenda
items, including closer cooperation between the Council of Europe and the
European Union. This was the topic of a special meeting held a day earlier,
during which Minister Oskanian’s intervention addressed the need for closer
and more efficient institutional links between these two major European
institutions.

In the margins of the Ministerial Meeting, Minister Oskanian met with the
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and discussed regional
issues, as well as the Commissioner’s future visit to Armenia. He also held
meetings with the Secretary of State of Spain, which currently holds the
Chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as
well as the Secretary of State of Sweden.

Minister Oskanian also met with the Council of Europe Monitoring Group,
known as the Ago Group, and responded to questions on Armenia’s regional
relations, and on the parliamentary elections. The Minister confirmed that
he shared the Council of Europe’s strong interest in open and fair elections
and looked forward to a favorable report by the OSCE ODIHR observation
mission. Minister Oskanian also responded to the Ago Group’s question about
the Nagorno Karabakh negotiation process.

Below is the text of the Minister’s statement:

Statement by
H.E. Mr. Vartan Oskanian
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Republic of Armenia
At the 117th Session of the Committee of Ministers
Strasbourg
May 11, 2007

Mr. Chairman,

As I was heading to this hall this morning, it occurred to me that I haven’t
missed a single Ministerial meeting since our membership in this
organization. I also remember my first Council of Europe ministerial when I
had been invited in the run-up to our membership, when I had tremendous
difficulty finding a way to get to Strasbourg from Yerevan in time to
deliver a speech and return that same evening. Those days we were still
suffering from the consequences of the collapse of an era, which had also
brought with it the collapse of our economic and transport connections to
the world.

Yesterday, as I left to come to this meeting, I had a choice among 6
European carriers, and left a country that has been growing on average 12% a
year. So survival is no longer a question. We, too, can now take survival
for granted. That’s a luxury we didn’t used to have.

Indeed a lot has changed since the first days of our membership. The Council
of Europe has evolved and grown and Armenia has changed greatly. Our
economic growth is gratifying, it must become more distributed, must reach
further into the rural communities and the sources of that growth must
themselves become more refined and sophisticated. Our political allegiance
to the values that define our era – the rights of the individual over the
rights of the state, the rule of law over the rule of man, the path of
compromise over the path of confrontation is also irreversible. These are
values that Europe articulated and embraced.

Over this last half century, Europe has proven that not only are these
ideals good ends in themselves, but they are the necessary means to
stability and prosperity. We have understood that we don’t need to choose
between human rights and development, but that one is a means to the other.

Over this last half century, the Council of Europe has changed. Membership
has grown, the Court of Human Rights and the Commissioner of Human Rights
have become solid institutions. Thus, with overlapping membership with the
EU, and sometimes with overlapping processes, these two organizations are
complementary. The Council of Europe is the organization where one hones
these values, adapts them as tools to the conditions and demands of the day
and place, perfects them, and makes it possible to take them, too, for
granted. The European Union is the shop that turns these values into the
instruments of reconciliation, prosperity and peace. Cooperation between
these two institutions takes place by default. The decision is not whether
to cooperate but, after the Juncker Report, the question is the depth,
specificity and institutionalization of that cooperation. The best
organizational minds must fashion mechanisms which are not self-serving,
which do not compromise the integrity or capacity of these institutions, but
enable them to meet the noble goals of creating and bolstering bonds between
human beings that transcend older boundaries and make of these new
institutional forms a functioning, productive, peaceful community of
nations. This is why, today, we can proudly point to a memorandum of
understanding between the Council of Europe and the EU, and why tomorrow, we
must put our credibility and resources behind the San Marino chairmanship in
making this memorandum a reality. I would also like to commend the Chairman
for making intercultural and inter-religious dialogue a priority on the
agenda of the Council of Europe this year. Armenia also attaches great
significance to these issues.

Mr. Chairman,

I have frequently said from this podium that Council of Europe membership
provided for Armenia a roadmap and a guidepost. It’s not enough to decide
which direction to take, it’s important to choose the right path to get
there. Our membership commitments pushed us along the path of reforms more
quickly and more purposefully than we could have done ourselves, alone.
Today, literally on the eve of parliamentary elections, we have a
Constitution which better protects the rights of the individual citizen and
better articulates the responsibilities of the government. These elections
will be held under new conditions, new laws, new working mechanisms, all
designed with the wisdom and experience of the Council of Europe and the
Venice Commission, the OSCE, the European institutions, to encourage our
citizens to suspend the decades of inbred cynicism and distrust, and believe
in the power of their voice and their vote. The stakes are high. We hope
that, next week, we will all be able to look at each other and say these
elections are significantly better than any we’ve had. Thus, we will be
well on our way towards the last of our Council of Europe commitments.

There is of course, Mr. Chairman, one commitment left which we made together
with Azerbaijan, when we entered this organization – that we would achieve a
peaceful, lasting resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Judging
purely from the content of the negotiating document and the nature of the
principles included there, and the progress we’ve made on that document, we
have hope that an agreement is possible. A major part of the progress comes
from the fact that all involved have come to acknowledge and agree that at
the end of the day, it’s the people of Nagorno Karabakh which should
determine their future status through a referendum, and through the exercise
of their right to self-determination.

But there are some factors which dampen our optimism. First, I worry that
the content and spirit of the negotiations are not matched by the public
statements that are regularly heard from the Azerbaijani leadership. Second,
the endless Azerbaijani references to a possible military solution are
counterproductive, not to say dangerous. Third, Azerbaijan’s actions do
little to bolster confidence. On the contrary, intentional violence such as
the organized destruction of Armenian cross stones in the Nakhijevan region
of Azerbaijan serve to further sow distrust between our peoples.

Still, this is a basic document on principles that is a balanced, fair set
of tradeoffs and we will continue to work on it.

Mr. Chairman,

Let me say thanks to you for San Marino’s leadership, and welcome Serbia to
the presidency, and also congratulate Montenegro on their membership to this
organization.

Thank you.