{"id":157496,"date":"2012-01-31T11:18:40","date_gmt":"2012-01-31T07:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=157496"},"modified":"2012-01-31T12:07:54","modified_gmt":"2012-01-31T08:07:54","slug":"armenia%e2%80%99s-oskanian-signals-political-comeback-urges-free-fair-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2012\/01\/31\/armenia%e2%80%99s-oskanian-signals-political-comeback-urges-free-fair-elections.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenia\u2019s Oskanian Signals Political Comeback, Urges Free, Fair Elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vartan Oskanian (pictured), Armenia\u2019s former longtime foreign minister, on Monday hinted at the possibility of running for parliament on the Prosperous Armenia Party\u2019s ticket and called for a broad-based \u201ccivic movement\u201d for the freedom and fairness of the May elections, RFE\/RL’s Armenian service<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span> reports.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about my involvement with the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) is not without basis,\u201d Oskanian said in a written statement circulated by his Civilitas Foundation think-tank. \u201cI have had such discussions with the Prosperous Armenia party as well as with other political forces.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time, I have still not made a decision, and believe there is still time to do so. Political processes, however, may accelerate my decision,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The BHK is a junior partner in Armenia\u2019s governing coalition. It is led by Gagik Tsarukyan, a millionaire businessman believed to be close to former president Robert Kocharian.<\/p>\n

Relations between the BHK and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan appear to have deteriorated since Kocharian gave last September the strongest indication yet that he would like to return to being active in politics. Political commentators have speculated that Kocharian might rely not only on the BHK but also former government figures such as Oskanian, who served as foreign minister throughout his 1998\u20132008 presidency.<\/p>\n

Unlike Tsarukyan, Oskanian has made no public statements in support of a Kocharian comeback. He has also distanced himself from some controversial episodes of the ex-president\u2019s decade-long rule. \u201cAs foreign minister, I often disagreed with many internal political developments, phenomena,\u201d Oskanian said in a 2009 interview.<\/p>\n

The Syrian-born former US national has been far more critical of the Sargsyan administration. In particular, he has strongly disapproved of Sargsyan\u2019s Western-backed policy of rapprochement with Turkey.<\/p>\n

Oskanian spoke on Monday of \u201cpolitically motivated pressures\u201d exerted on Tsarukyan\u2019s party and, in a clear reference to Sargsyan\u2019s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), \u201cthe utilization of administrative resources this early in the pre-electoral period.\u201d He also said the proper conduct of the upcoming vote will be of \u201cutmost importance\u201d to Armenia.<\/p>\n

\u201cReforms and change can only happen when there is a new political configuration in the National Assembly. And such political balance can only be assured through free and fair elections,\u201d said Oskanian, citing this as being the conviction driving his own political engagement.<\/p>\n

In that regard, the former minister backed opposition calls for the elections to be held only on the party-list basis. The ruling HHK has rejected those calls, saying that the Armenian authorities are committed to making the contest the most democratic in the country\u2019s history under the existing electoral system.<\/p>\n

Oskanian said that Armenia\u2019s three main opposition forces as well as the BHK should step up the pressure on the authorities by launching a \u201ccivic movement\u201d that would strive to prevent electoral fraud. They should also \u201cthink about the possibility of deeper cooperation during the May parliamentary election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The opposition has already pledged to close ranks on the voting reform openly backed by some senior BHK figures. But Tsarukyan\u2019s party has not yet formulated an official position on the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTalk about my involvement with the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) is not without basis,\u201d Oskanian said in a written statement circulated by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":157440,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[21753,37521,37249,16621],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}