Published since 07.2002
Published on March 28, 2008
REFORM AND REBUILDING: US DIPLOMAT SAYS SARGSYAN HAS OPPORTUNITY TO “CHANGE THE PATH
- Whether there is immediate implementation of democratic policies and a tendency away from repressive treatment of citizenry during the first days of President Serzh Sargsyan’s administration will determine if Armenia’s strained relationship with the United States is improved or suffers further damage in the fallout of February 19-March 1. “The president is obviously facing a huge challenge to convince those who may be frustrated by some of the things that have happened, that things are going to be different,” US Charges de Affaires Joseph Pennington told ArmeniaNow in an interview at the US Embassy here Wednesday. “It is a challenge for him but it is also a huge opportunity. We have heard things from Prime Minister Sargsyan that he intends to change the path that Armenia is on and get back to a more democratic path . . . “If he hits the ground running and starts doing some things that most Armenians agree would need to be reformed (mentioning media freedom, election reform, credible prosecutions, investigations). . . I think people will rally.” While showing stately generosity toward the president-elect and hope for Armenia’s success under Sargsyan, Pennington was steadfast in voicing concerns that his country has held over Armenia’s behavior in this season of election and post-election. Pennington reiterated America’s misgivings about the fairness of the campaign season, the conduct of Election Day (the Charges de Affaires said that even he witnessed questionable procedure during the re-count of votes following the election), the post-election divisiveness, the severity of the State of Emergency and the subsequent “series of arrests”. The US’s top diplomat in Armenia agreed with a characterization that Armenia is now “borderline” in terms of its eligibility for the US’ biggest ever allotment of aid to the country, the Millennium Challenge Account. About $235 million is at stake – nearly 10 times as much as is currently under debate for Congressional aid to Armenia next year – pending Armenia’s performance on issues mostly pertaining to democratic development and human rights. But even as the Charges de Affaires spoke from his US compound Wednesday, police under the direction of outgoing president and Sargsyan advocate Robert Kocharyan were detaining peaceful demonstrators whose only apparent crime was to stand on Yerevan’s Northern Avenue in an act of silent defiance against the system that has led this tiny republic to its lowest moment of respect for human rights in its 17 year history of independence. The United States, said Pennington (whose position is a proxy pending appointment of a new ambassador), considers future support from the United States to be “in jeopardy”, particularly as it concerns Millennium Challenge. Chief among the qualifications for disbursement of the funds is whether Armenia meets criteria based on improving inclusion of common citizenry into the democratic process. Areas such as human rights and including media freedoms not defined according to arbitrary government equations of responsibility to state order are among categories in which Armenia currently is outside acceptability. The Charges de Affaires pointed out that, even prior to the presidential election of February 19 or the fatal and destructive clashes between authorities and protestors on March 1, “frankly there already were concerns” in the US whether Armenia would qualify for release of the Millennium Challenge funds. The concern grew to alarm and was voiced in a March 11 letter to President Kocharyan by Millennium Challenge ambassador John Danilovich who formally notified the Armenian president that his “official warning” puts Armenia at risk of losing the US special funding should the current trend of repressions continue. The Armenian president (indirectly) replied by saying that even if the US withdrew its gift, he was confident Armenia could “no doubt” find funding elsewhere to implement the considered projects – primarily underwriting programs that would reduce poverty in Armenia’s undeveloped regions. Though not specified, it is reasonable to believe that out-going President Kocharyan was staking his confidence on the substantial and strengthening base Armenia continues to enjoy in its diplomatic and economic relations with Russia, home of Armenia’s largest Diaspora, and of the Kremlin, whose long shadow still covers current Armenian leadership. Pennington acknowledged Armenia’s long history of Russian relations that pre-dates independent Armenia, as a measure of the US’ place on Armenia’s extended family tree when it comes to buying allegiance. Still: “In terms of democratization we had a very clear idea of where we would like to see Armenia go, and I think that was shared by most Armenians.” As the Charges de Affaires points out, the US – primarily through its United States Agency for International Aid (USAID) – has invested, mostly no-strings-attached, $1.8 billion to strengthen Armenia’s chances of building a level of democracy that so far is lacking in Armenia and other post-soviet countries, including Russia. During those years of handouts from America meanwhile, the Russians were calling in its markers of debt relinquishment by assuming Armenian resources including railroad communication, natural gas and nuclear and thermal power and telecommunications – acquisitions that hold multiple times the value of all the free dollars let loose by the Americans. Sargsyan, whose election remains unrecognized by official Washington D.C., has already appeared in Moscow this week where he was congratulated by Kremlin authorities for restoring stability in Armenia and where he was assured that Moscow-Yerevan relations will remain on sure footing during his and Dmitry Medvedev’s upcoming presidencies. And, while Sargsyan has dismissed notions of a Robert Kocharyan Premiership in Armenia, speculation has spread that Armenia’s outgoing president has been tapped to head a Russian-Armenian business conglomerate comparable to the mega-monopoly Gazprom in Russia. Pennington says that the natural inclination toward Russia does not negate better relations with America. Still: Left to ponder why money can’t buy love in this unlikely ménage a trios of superpowers and no power are American taxpayers (including Diaspora) whose annual government gifts of about $100 million may now be seen to have added up to a payoff of negative returns and indifference. While underscoring Armenia’s need to “reverse the trend” of its present and recent variation on democracy, the American diplomat dismisses a suggestion that money from America has been spent in vain. He mentions health care improvement and banking reform among institutional areas in which the US has made a difference. But making a difference is not the same as making a democracy and in that regard the US patience is again tried. “We want to give the authorities the chance to reverse this situation,” Pennington said. In the US, the administrative tendency of an incoming president is usually judged by his behavior in the first 100 days. Though this young democracy has yet to adopt such a tradition Pennington says that the period seems a “fair test of a trend” for the Sargsyan administration. Whether trend or tradition, though, the ultimate scale of democracy will be tilted at home, the US statesman concludes. “We don’t have the answers to Armenia’s problems. Ultimately these are the problems and challenges that Armenia faces in getting back to a democratic path. The international community and the United States can push and push and certainly use what influence we have in terms of assistance programs to try to encourage the government to go in the right direction, but ultimately we can’t solve these problems. We can’t step in and do it. Reform is going to have to be generated from within.”
- John Hughes
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Today in Armenian history- 1799 Birth of Eone Kish (Kishian), Hungarian Armenian revolutionary figure.
- 1827 General Ivan Paskevich is appointed Governor of the Caucasus and Commander of the Caucasian Special Corps.
- 1830 Birth of organist, conductor, teacher, and public figure, Anton Mayilian in Tbilissi.
- 1907 Birth of surgeon Ivan Gevorgian. He invented pain-killers and pioneered new ways for blood transfusion.
- 1920 The Drama Institute presents its first play.
- 1923 Birth of two-time hero and pilot Nelson Stepanian. The group of pilots led by Nelson Stepanian sank more than 50 enemy ships and destroyed 13 airplanes in World War Two. Nelson Stepanian flew 240 sorties. He died in a dogfight in 1944.
- 1928 Birth of artist and sculptor Ara Harootoonian. His great architectural work is the Sardarapat complex.
- 1988 The Supreme Soviet of the USSR rejects Artsakh's demand to be reunited with Armenia.
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