TURKS BARRED FROM OBSERVING ARMENIAN VOTE
By Karine Kalantarian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
May 7 2007
The Armenian government has refused to grant entry visas to eight
Turkish nationals who planned to monitor Armenia’s parliamentary
elections under the aegis of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe, it emerged on Monday.
They planned to arrive in Yerevan to join a 330-strong observer mission
which is due to be deployed by the OSCE’s Warsaw-based vote-monitoring
arm, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR).
The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the Turks have been barred from
monitoring Saturday’s elections because of Ankara’s continuing refusal
to unconditionally establish diplomatic relations with Yerevan and
lift Turkey’s long-running economic blockade of Armenia.
"Considering the fact that Turkey is refusing to normalize relations
and to open the border with Armenia, we believe that it would not
be expedient for Turkish representatives to monitor our elections,"
the ministry spokesman, Vladimir Karapetian, told RFE/RL.
The ODIHR director, Christian Strohal, was quick to criticize the
move, saying that it runs counter to Armenia’s commitments to the
OSCE, which Yerevan formally invited to observe the elections earlier
this year. "An invitation to observe elections is an invitation to
all OSCE participating States, and is issued in order to ensure
equal treatment and strengthen the diversity of observation," he
said in a statement. "Preventing some observers from participating
contradicts the principles of transparency and objectivity which are
an indispensable aspect of democratic elections."
Strohal also complained that the Armenian government has provided no
official explanation for the "unexpected" snub. Turkish representatives
have monitored Armenian elections in the past.
The findings of the ODIHR-led mission will be critical for the
international legitimacy of the Armenian elections. The mission will
be bolstered by a team of about 65 members of the OSCE’s Parliamentary
Assembly. Observers will also be sent by the Council of Europe and
the European Parliament.