OPEN, BUT CLOSED ‘PUBLIC’ DISCUSSION
Lusine Barseghyan

Haykakan Zhamanak
Nov 21 2008
Armenia

The "public" discussions initiated by [President] Serzh Sargsyan
yesterday [20 November] took place under conditions of total secrecy.

First, the presidential press service compiled a list of the invited
media outlets on a thorough selective basis. The entry into the
"public" discussions was based on a list. However, 10 minutes after
the start of the meeting, Sargsyan asked the media, including the TV
channels under his personal control, to leave the hall.

All the parties in the [opposition] Armenian National Congress have
rejected Sargsyan’s invitation. All other small parties were warned by
the presidential office to attend the meeting by all means. Already
behind closed doors, Sargsyan set a condition for everyone that
everything to be discussed should not be disclosed. In fact, Sargsyan
did it "for the sake of appearance".

Moscow Declaration calls for public discussions

The matter is that the Meindorf declaration signed in Moscow says
clearly that public discussions about Karabakh settlement should be
organized in Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now Sargsyan tries to show that
he keeps his word and organizes the discussions. However, in fact,
what was organized yesterday [20 November], cannot be called a public
discussion with the best will in the world. Anyway, this closed
"public" discussion lasted for about five hours yesterday.

Representatives of all the parties, who were leaving the sports and
concert complex named after Karen Demirchyan, did not say anything
about topics discussed. Some admitted in "friendly" conversations
only that their concerns regarding the Karabakh issue have not
been dispersed at all. Moreover, some people left this discussion
in a depressed condition. That is to say, people still had serious
concerns after about a five-hour discussion during which 47 people
raised questions.

The chairperson of the [opposition] Heritage Party board, Anahit
Bakhshyan, who took part in that discussion yesterday [21 November]
agreed to say only what issues the Heritage Party raised and
answered a few of our questions very briefly. Bakhshyan answered
briefly and clearly: "No", when asked if she is satisfied with the
discussions, and whether concerns regarding the Karabakh issue, have
been dispersed. Bakhshyan said that many questions arose after the
discussion. "However, I realized one thing that we raise many issues
about the course of the negotiations, which are not clear for them
either. Yes, there are many undiscovered, unclarified things. I just
do not want to break the rules of the game," Bakhshyan said.

She said that however, it was at least stated that the political
forces sitting there back the following formulation that the Nagornyy
Karabakh’s right for self-determination cannot be considered within
Azerbaijan’s composition. In short, all these moods show that Serzh
Sargsyan did not say anything specific about a Karabakh settlement.

Opposition dubs discussion "senseless"

While answering our question whether Sargsyan said when a referendum
will be held, Bakhshyan said: "He said but nothing is precisely
clear." We also asked Bakhshyan about the purpose of the discussion,
if Sargsyan will anyway sign what the international community puts
in front of him. "Serzh Sargsyan said that this meeting provided him
with an opportunity to listen to everyone’s opinions." Yesterday
[20 November] we also asked the Armenian National Congress [ANC]
to comment on this closed "public" discussion.

A representative of the ANC, Arman Musinyan, said: "The ANC member
parties said that this meeting was both senseless and frivolous by
refusing to attend it. This meeting was merely of PR goal, because
if there was something substantial to say, a specific plan would
have been suggested, in particular not secret Madrid principles,
which Serzh Sargsyan has found in the Internet. Maybe via Google."