USA STILL HOPEFUL ALTHOUGH CONCERNED

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“The USA is concerned over the latest events in Armenia. Over the past two months shortcomings on the democratic way have been noticed in the country,” US Charge d’Affaires, a.i., Joseph Pennington announced on March 28.
The American diplomat noted that their concerns are related to the conduct of the election, election day, post-election developments, vote tabulation, the tragedy of March 1 and 2, the state of emergency and the recent arrests.
“We support the establishment of democracy in the Republic of Armenia but we are concerned about the current tendencies and the recent events. Although the latest events will hardly affect US-Armenian cultural relations, Washington is really concerned over them,” says the Charge d’Affaires.
Washington has voiced concern in a letter of the head of the MCC Ambassador John Danilovich to Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian. In addition, Pennington said the tendency which was marked as regress in performance of benchmarks of eligibility for the MCC program in John Danilovich’s letter were acquiring bad expressions before the events. The U.S. charge said there were concerns about effective administration, anti-corruption efforts, freedom of press and certainly democratic processes. The past two months have made the concerns of the United States even deeper.
In addition, Joseph Pennington said the purpose of the letter of John Danilovich was not punishment or threat; it addressed the Armenian government to encourage it to move along the path for democracy. According to Joseph Pennington, the letter of John Danilovich mentioned only the possibility of suspension of the MCC program. However, no decision has been passed yet. The U.S. diplomat says the United States is not likely to suspend the MCC program because it is targeted at people who need it. However, if there is no return to the path for democracy, the program will be suspended although he repeats that it is not the purpose of the United States. Joseph Pennington says it will be fair to give Armenia’s president-elect and his administration a chance to correct the situation.
As of about 100 detainees the U.S. Charge d’Affaires says they must be released.
In reply to the question why George Bush hasn’t congratulated President-Elect Serzh Sarkissian U.S. Charge d’Affaires said after the Armenian presidential election the U.S. State Department congratulated the people of Armenia on a competitive election. He said he cannot suppose what Washington may do or may not do but he concluded that the U.S. government is ready to work with the new government of Armenia towards democratic tendencies.

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