THE USA NOT PLANNING TO INTERFERE IN OUR INTERNAL PROBLEMS
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkharh, Armenia
Dec 18 2007

The acting Charge D’Affaires of the US Embassy in Armenia Joseph
Pennington convened a press conference yesterday.

Pennington accepted this post at the end of October, when the acting
Charge D’Affaires Rudolf Perina was called back. Before that he used
to work in Turkey for four years, as a Press Secretary of the Embassy,
later he has been appointed as the US Deputy Ambassador in Armenia
and he has been working in Armenia from July. For the last 10 months
he has been learning Armenian language, he can understand and even
speak Armenian to some extent. He is attractive and very friendly.

The Charge D’Affaires firstly expressed regret regarding the fact that
under the well-known circumstances the United States didn’t have an
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Armenia, for a long
period of time, which however, " doesn’t hamper the full activity of
the embassy." In particular, the Armenian programs of the corporation
"Millennium Challenges" are in process. The "election assistance"
program the funding of which, by the US Government, has started from
2007, is also in process. Under the auspices of USAID in the near
future the fight against corruption will gain momentum.

Whereas the thing here is not about assisting in the disclosure of a
particular corruption case, but rather in institutional reforms, and
contributing to the reduction of corruption risks by the involvement
of the interested elements of the civil society.

"Armenian authorities made public announcements, on the high level,
about their intentions and willingness to fight corruption. We will
continue to work with the active groups of society, to elaborate
an effective strategy that has already been created in different
countries. They have been rather productive and in our view they can
be helpful for Armenia as well."

In general, as he said: "Fighting corruption is a rather difficult
task. Not only Armenia has this problem. And, as long as RA authorities
are willing to solve this problem we are ready to work with them,
to record progress in this issue."

Regarding the future of Metsamor Nuclear Power Plant J. Pennington
reminded that 2 weeks back an agreement has been signed with the
Minister of Energy, according to which the US commits itself
to allocating 2 million dollars for the examination of the
technical-economic expediency of constructing the Nuclear Power
Plant. Even though the United States made serious investments to
increase the safety of the Nuclear Power Plant, the latter still
supports the idea of closing it, but treats with understanding the
argumentations advanced by Armenian side saying that the Power Plant
can be closed only in case we have an alternative source of electric
-power. "This is the reason why we want to help Armenian government
find another source of power and to create motivating atmosphere
for those investors who will be interested in participating in the
construction of the new power Plant in Armenia.

In his honor, the speaker protected himself from making didactic
comments about the forthcoming elections in Armenia. Instead he said:
" Some time ago, through one organization, USAID has represented
proposals regarding the amendments in the Electoral Code, many of
which have been taken into account. I wouldn’t like to interfere in
the internal political debate, because it’s not our problem.

One thing I can definitely say. The USA is ready to show assistance
to any activity directed to holding the elections in conformity with
the international standards. We considered May elections to be a step
forward in terms of democratization and based on the announcements
of the top officials we hope that February elections will be another
step towards democracy."

Regarding Armenian-Turkish relations: " we endorse the idea of making
dialogues between Armenia and Turkey more active, establishing
diplomatic relations between the two countries and the opening of
the border between Armenia and Turkey. It will be helpful for both
Armenia and Turkey, and why not the whole region. That is why we call
Turkish and Armenian governments to choose that path. We all want to
see extension of dialogues, open borders and improvement of relations,
in the region."

In response to our question J. Pennington didn’t touch upon ICG report
(unless the problem is solved as soon as possible, war is unavoidable
in 2012), saying that official Washington doesn’t have to comment on
the reports of the non-governmental organizations (even if they are
financed by famous American funds, L.P.).

"The USA and the co-Chair representing the USA in Minsk Group don’t
share the idea that there is any military version to settle this
conflict. The Minsk Group process is on and the USA is completely ready
to assist this process. In our view certain progress has already been
recorded and we hope agreement will be reached in the near future,"
he said.