U.S. SENDS POSITIVE SIGNALS TO ARMENIA

And speeds up the process of appointing an Ambassador

After the presidential elections and especially the tragic events of March 1-2, the statements made by a number of senior American officials with regard to freezing some of the American programs implemented in our country have given rise to certain problems in the Armenian-American relations.
The threats of applying sanctions met with the rough counteraction of our country's leadership, and the official Yerevan made it clear to the American side that regardless the stance of the “Millennium Challenges” corporation, the programs envisaged within the frameworks of its assistance will be implemented, and, if necessary, other sources of funding will be found. Certainly, the US assistance programs are still important for Armenia, however, it is necessary to keep in mind that after a sustainable economic growth our country will already be able to implement some of them at the expense of its own savings.
It is also necessary to keep in mind that taking into consideration the century-old saying, “the holy place never remains vacant”, Armenia may, upon necessity, find other sources of foreign funding by virtue of being situated in one of the world’s most sensitive regions.
However, it recently became clear that the US Administration has started realizing that the program aimed at making a unilateral and straightforward pressure on Armenia has no prospects at all.
Ter-Petrosyan had already accomplished his task, and the American administration seemed to be initiating attempts of taking advantage of its results and pushing Armenia to certain concessions. This scenario of developments might have come true hadn’t President-elect Serge Sargsyan paid a working visit to Moscow on March 24. Along with Russia’s political support to the Armenian authorities, the visit also heralded the beginning of the implementation of new Armenian-Russian economic programs.
And thus, on March 25, just a day after Serge Sargsyan’s visit to Moscow, Matthew Bryza made simultaneously two statements, one of which bore a reassuring and the other – admonishing character. M. Bryza made a “new” interpretation on State Secretary Condoleezza Rice’s statement regarding the termination of the assistance programs to Armenia after the events of March 1-2. “State Secretary Condoleezza Rice spoke about the termination of some programs, and not about all the US assistance programs directed to Armenia. However the necessity of freezing the US assistance to Armenia may be eliminated since the authorities of the country have made positive steps towards lifting the state of emergency.”
It is noteworthy that M. Bryza’s reassuring words were accompanied by his inadequate interpretation on the Armenian President’s recent statement on the possibility of recognizing the independence of Nagorno Karabakh. The thing is that Robert Kocharyan had warned Azerbaijan that if it pursued its policy of questioning the Minsk Group format and transferring the Karabakh issue to the UN tribunal, Armenia would, in response, choose to recognize the independence of Nagorno Karabakh and provide the country with security guarantees. Whereas, M. Bryza believes that in case of taking such an “asymmetric” step, Armenia will rule out the possibility of negotiations.”
It turns out that Azerbaijan may undertake “asymmetric steps” in the United Nations, without meeting with an equivalent counteraction, whereas Armenia has to make exclusively “symmetric responses”.
This shows that both the task of continuing the American assistance programs and the necessity of resuming the previous balanced approaches will continue to be viewed by the United States as levers of influence on the authorities of our country. That is, the pressures will continue, acquiring a conventional and much more flexible character.
In this context, it is necessary to consider the prompt solution of the issue of the candidacy of the new US Ambassador after the recent events of Armenia. By the nomination of Mary Jovanovich who has officiated in different CIS countries for many years, the Bush Administration undoubtedly desires to have a strong and energetic ambassador in Yerevan who will be able to work with the required consistency.
However, considering that the appointment of Ambassador is quite a complicated protocol in the United States, and the country is to hold presidential elections in November, the United States Armenian lobby may also say its decisive word with regard to the confirmation of Mary Javanovich’s candidacy. The whole problem consists only in the issue to what extent the repetition of Richard Hoagland’s story is advantageous to the Armenian side, considering that the United States has not had an Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in Armenia for more than a year as a result of such story.
Thus, after lifting the regime of the state of emergency in Armenia, the American administration expresses willingness to review the policy it has been implementing in relation to our country following the events of March 1-2. However, after the lame attempts of “lashing” Armenia, as well as in the pretext of the obvious intention of promising “pies” to Armenia, it becomes obvious that the Republican Administration’s is seriously concerned over the prospects of the further development of Armenian-Russian political and especially economic cooperation rather than “satisfied” with lifting the state of emergency in Armenia.
ARMEN TSATOURYAN

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Discussion

43 days before | remove (5) | reply
Gagik wrote:
any cind of foreign influence is not welcome in Armenia, especially US
43 days before | remove (5) | reply
Rafael wrote:
Mr. Tsatouryan,
The ambassador nomination process in the United States, is not complicated, it is a system of checks and balances, something your country ought to have. When a country like the US gives money to Armenia, is reserves the right to criticize and have opinions about Armenia internal political structure.

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