ARMENIAN POLITICIANS, US INTELLIGENCE OFFICIAL DISCUSS REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES
Aravot, Armenia
Sept 27 2005
Text of Anna Israelyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Aravot on 27
September headlined “Revolutionary or evolutionary development?”
Representatives of the Armenian opposition are trying to get an answer
even to this dilemma during their meetings with various representatives
of the US administration.
The US ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, recently said: “The USA will
soon come up with new initiatives aimed at supporting free and fair
parliamentary and presidential elections in Armenia in 2007 and 2008.”
Did he mean initiatives which prompted a number of American officials
to visit Armenia over the last few month? The US embassy has not said
anything about them. Specifically, we mean the visit by the woman who
deals with Armenia’s problems at the US Department of State and then,
the visit by a group of the US National Intelligence Council who met
the leaders of different opposition political parties and discussed
the domestic political situation in Armenia. These leaders were Aram
Sarkisyan [leader of the Anrapetutyun Party], Ovanes Ovanesyan, Aram
Karapetyan, Stepan Demirchyan [leader of the opposition Justice faction
in parliament], Viktor Dallakyan [secretary of the Justice faction]
and Vazgen Manukyan [leader of the National Democratic Union]. They
also met the head of Eastern Europe and Russia department of the US
National Intelligence Council, Martin Schwartz.
The meeting lasted for a very long time. The leader of the National
Democratic Union, Vazgen Manukyan, said that they discussed the
general situation: “He [Schwartz] wondered about ways of development
the opposition political leaders foresee. What processes are taking
place in Armenia and in the region? How democratic and stable are
these states? This was a factfinding visit rather than a visit aimed
at drawing up a programme.” Vazgen Manukyan added that they also
touched on the constitutional reforms.
The leader of the Anrapetutyun [Republic] Party, Aram Sarkisyan,
said that Schwartz was very interested in the domestic political
situation in Armenia: “He gave an opportunity to all the opposition
leaders to talk about their approaches and views. Schwartz said that
until recently they paid more attention to relations between Ukraine
and Russia, but now the time has come when they are also interested
in what is taking place in other regions. He spent more time asking
questions than presenting his own approaches. Certainly, we were also
given an opportunity to ask questions. But this dialogue cannot be
made public. This meeting was organized by the US embassy and they
can disseminate this information if they want.”
The secretary of the Justice faction, Viktor Dallakyan, said: “Schwartz
asked a question and all talks concentrated on that: revolutionary or
evolutionary development in Armenia? All participants in the meeting
replied that in Armenia it is impossible to achieve anything by means
of evolutionary changes. I said that in fact, it is impossible to
come to power in an election, which is why we have to take the path
of revolutionary changes, and Schwartz did not object to this.”