Epress.am News from Armenia
At a Nov. 14, 2008 meeting with then US Ambassador to Armenia Marie L. Yovanovitch, former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian criticized the downward trends in democracy and human rights, according to a Nov. 18, 2008 confidential cable written by Yovanovitch and recently published by WikiLeaks.
Yovanovitch notes that Oskaninan “observed that former President [Robert] Kocharian ‘did the same thing,’ but that the situation is worse now. Oskanian said he did not know whether Sargsyan would cobble together a political solution to resolve the issue of the Mar. 1 detainees, such as an amnesty. He noted, however, that he was familiar with Sargsyan’s thinking in Mar. when they were in meetings together, and at that time, Sargsyan wanted ‘to do something about this’.”
According to Oskanian, Kocharian is interested in entering politics and working towards the 2012 parliamentary elections “at which time he might start his own party,” but the timing of his political debut depends on developments in Armenia, and “if there is an opening, he will seize it”:
“He is talking to party leaders and others and says there is interest in working with him. Oskanian refuted the rumors circulating that former President Kocharian wants to stage a political comeback in the near future and that Oskanian is helping him. He said that he can’t imagine Kocharian as Prime Minister, since he would then be number two. He added Kocharian is doing a lot of traveling abroad now, and has not mentioned any such plans.”
Yovanovitch notes that Oskanian offered the “rare view in Armenia that Armenia’s economic development depends on democratic improvements, including an independent and professional court system, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.” He noted that without improving good governance and raising the human capacity in Armenia, the country will never be able to really progress.
In her concluding comments, Yovanovitch notes that the US embassy suspects rumors of Oskanian working politically with Kocharian to be true:
“Notwithstanding Oskanian’s rebuttal, the Armenian political class remains convinced that Oskanian is working politically with Kocharian, and we strongly suspect that to be correct. Oskanian is a brilliant, experienced, and wily diplomat, and probably not above a bit of dissimulation in the service of his goals. On Turkey and NK, his public and private comments over recent months have often been quite skeptical and had a tinge of sour grapes. There may well be an element of professional jealousy and resentment that after Oskanian’s long years of hard work (representing the uncompromising President Kocharian), his successor, Nalbandian, may get to be the one in the Foreign Minister’s seat at the moment of breakthroughs on Turkey and NK [Nagorno-Karabakh].”