ARMENIAN MINISTER DISCUSSED "POLITICAL CRISIS" DURING RECENT US VISIT

Haykakan Zhamanak
July 22 2008
Armenia

"You will not manage to conceal"

The Armenian Foreign Ministry is issuing peculiar statements on the
details of the [recent] visit by Armenian Foreign Minister Edvard
Nalbandyan to the USA. The US embassy in Armenia issued a statement
on the visit yesterday [21 July].

The American side, of course, covered the details of the visit
which were never included in the statements by the Armenian Foreign
Ministry. For instance, the embassy statement says that the major topic
of the discussions Nalbandyan held in the USA was "Armenia’s progress
in overcoming the political crisis which emerged as a result of the
[19 February] presidential election". "US officials voiced concern
over the arrests and persecution of opposition political figures,
over freedom of assembly and freedom of the press; responded to calls
by the international community to conduct a trustworthy investigation
into the 1-2 March events [unrest in Yerevan]. These issues will be
discussed at a session of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s board
which will be held in September and will be presided by [US] Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice," the statement by the US embassy says.