KARABAKH PROBLEM CAN BECOME PRICE OF EXPRESSION OF WASHED AWAY POSITION OF OSCE AND COUNCIL OF EUROPE ON ELECTIONS IN RA, STEPAN GRIGORIAN CONSIDERS
Noyan Tapan
April 17, 2008
YEREVAN, APRIL 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The position of a number of leading
international organizations and first of all of OSCE and Council of
Europe on electoral and post-electroal processes in Armenia causes
much anxiety.
Stepan Grigorian, the Head of the Analytical Center for Globalization
and Regional Cooperation, stated at the April 17 discussion dedicated
to the presidential elections in Armenia and to post-electoral events.
According to him, the phrase in the first interim report of OSCE/ODIHR
observers that the February 19 elections were held in line with the
commitments assumed by Armenia towards the Council of Europe causes
anxiety.
In spite of the fact that thanks to the much discontent of the
Armenian society and the subsequent pressure by the opposition that
phrase was eliminated from the second report’s text, nevertheless it
appeared again in the report of the PACE monitoring group. "I assert
that this sentence is connected with the Nagorno Karabakh problem,
which is the price of expression of such a washed away position by
OSCE and the Council of Europe," Stepan Grigorian stated.
According to him, this formulation about the correspondence of the
presidential elections to democratic standards should be connected
with the solution of the issue on territories around Nagorno Karabakh
currently controlled by Armenian armed formations, which is not
beneficial for the Armenian side.
It should be mentioned that the discussion was organized by the
Analytical Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation with
the assistance of the F. Ebert German Fund.