Epress.am News from Armenia
Government accountability is absolutely essential for every country; however, accountability doesn’t mean that any particular citizen is going to agree with all government actions all the time, said US Ambassador to Armenia Marie Yovanovitch, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
“I think you’re going to find in every country in the world when people disagree with decisions made by whether it’s a court or it’s a police officer or whether it’s a political organization, you’re going to find that some people are going to say that government is not being held accountable. And sometimes that’s true and sometimes it just means that that political force has lost that particular political debate. And ultimately I think it’s for the people of each country to decide whether its government is moving forward and governing in an accountable way,” she said.
Asked by journalist for her opinion on those imprisoned for their connection to the events of Mar. 1, 2008, the US ambassador said the US position has been the same since the process started and the US welcomes the amnesty the authorities declared a year and a half ago.
“We welcome the fact that additional detainees have been let go, including two just last week. And we encourage that process to continue,” she said.
Asked by a journalist for her comments on reports that the Armenian opposition represented by the Armenian National Congress and the Armenian authorities are becoming more constructive and a dialogue is beginning between them, Yovanovitch said:
“Obviously I read all the same articles and news accounts that you all write and presumably you read. So I know that there’s a lot of speculation about that and if in fact the internal political process in Armenia was less tense, shall we say, that’s something that we would only applaud.”
“But I’d also say that how the internal political process here in Armenia works, the discussions between various factions or parties or actors, that’s something I think for Armenians to work out among themselves. I don’t really there’s really a role there for the US government,” she added.
The ambassador brought with her the speech she made at Yerevan State University a few weeks, “because I think it bears reading,” particularly highlighting aspects of her speech such as the importance of civil society to partner with government in order to move forward issues:
“We really believe, as a country, as a people, that the citizens of a country need to be active in those solutions because no government can do it on its own for citizens. At the end of my remarks I made the point that I think it’s important whether you’re American, whether you’re Armenian, whether you’re a citizen of another country, that people not just sit around and complain; that it’s important for all of us, just as we think it’s important for government’s be accountable to the people, it’s important for citizens to be responsible and to try and come up with some of the solutions to the issues that they see around them.”