ARMENIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BACKS COOPERATION WITH BOTH RUSSIA, NATO
Mediamax
Jan 30 2008
Armenia
Yerevan, 30 January: An Armenian presidential candidate, who is
also a deputy speaker of the parliament and member ofthe [Armenian
Revolutionary Federation] Dashnaktsutyun party bureau, Vahan
Hovhannisyan, said in Yerevan today that heconsiders as righteous
Yerevan’s choice of the "multi-layer" model of security provision.
Vahan Hovhannisyan said this today at his meeting with journalists
in the Information Center on NATO in Yerevan.
The Information Center on NATO sent out invitations to all the nine
presidential candidates with a proposal topublicly present their
approaches to the issue of security provision in Armenia.
Vahan Hovhannisyan noted that Armenia has the opportunity to expand
cooperation with Russia within the framework ofthe Collective Security
Treaty Organization (CSTO), as well as with NATO. The presidential
candidate noted that Armenia keeps to a constructive stance, trying
not to gamble on contradictions but find common interests.
Vahan Hovhannisyan noted that the absence of diplomatic relations
between Armenia and Turkey undoubtedly influencesthe public perception
of NATO in Armenia. The presidential candidate also noted that
"in Soviet times we perceived NATO as a defender of the free world,
however, after the collapse of the USSR, when our eyes opened, we
realized that byno means all the member states of the alliance are
as free and democratic as we considered them to be".