OSKANIAN QUESTIONS GOVERNMENT COMMITMENT TO ‘EUROPEAN VALUES’
Karine Kalantarian

Armenia Liberty
Nov 11 2009

Armenia — Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian.

Former Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian questioned on Wednesday
successive Armenian governments’ commitment to "European values"
such as democracy and human rights, saying that he was increasingly
embarrassed with having to justify their undemocratic practices during
his decade-long tenure.

Oskanian said the lack of such commitment has been the main hurdle to
Armenia’s democratization and integration into various European bodies.

"The government is the most important thing," he said during a public
discussion on the matter organized by the Civilitas Foundation, his
Yerevan-based think-tank. "I was in it, and one of the reasons why
I’m not now is that things reached a point where it was difficult to
explain the difference between words and actions to the Europeans.

"That problem always existed, especially after elections when there
were some undemocratic developments in Armenia. You can imagine the
plight of the foreign minister every time the issue was brought up
in Europe."

"My experience has shown that our successive governments have not
been prepared for a full adoption and application of these values,"
said Oskanian. "This is a fact. They have at best been very selective."

"The authorities have regarded the full adoption and application of
European values as a threat to their power. This will remain the case
until we manage to create counterweights in our political system,"
he added.

Oskanian served as foreign minister in the administration of
former President Robert Kocharian throughout his 1998-2008 rule,
a period that saw three disputed presidential elections and other
political upheavals. Various European bodies criticized the Kocharian
administration’s handling of the polls as well as its human rights
record.

Ever since leaving office in April 2008, Oskanian has increasingly
distanced himself from this and other controversial episodes of the
Kocharian era. The Syrian-born former U.S. national has also been
increasingly critical of domestic and foreign policies pursued by
the current president, Serzh Sarkisian.

Oskanian said on Wednesday that the Council of Europe, which Armenia
joined in 2001, and the European Union should be "more consistent"
in pressing the authorities in Yerevan to honor their commitments on
democracy and human rights.

In Oskanian’s words, the Armenian public, for its part, should exert
similar pressure on both the government and the Europeans, he said. "I
think that we should be more assertive in demanding a more serious
engagement by them," he said.