“OSCE Yerevan Office has no connection with Karabakh conflict” (video)
“OSCE Yerevan office should continue its activities in order to contribute to the development of democracy in our country,” said Stepan Grigoryan, Director of the Center for Globalization and Regional Cooperation, while touching upon possible closure of the office, “I think that we must inform the OSCE leadership that the activities of that office are very important to us, as it contributes to the development of democracy in Armenia. Only the fact that the experts of the office assisted to improve Armenia’s legislature, is much for us.” According to the words of Mr Grigoryan, the activities of the OSCE Yerevan office shouldn’t be linked to the issue of Karabakh conflict resolution, “This office doesn’t deal with conflict’s issues; we shouldn’t link its existence and activities to other issues, which exist in the region and the world,” he said, adding that the OSCE leaders also should know about it, “We should try to show that the OSCE Yerevan office has no connection with Karabakh conflict and solves mainly the issue of establishment of democracy in Armenia.” Avetik Ishkanyan, Head of the Helsinki Committee of Armenia, added that we are 25 years’ state, but still need such structures: “It’s strange, but I would like the OSCE and the CoE offices close down in Armenia, but not now, as there are such offices in the countries, which aim at democracy, but haven’t achieved it yet,” noted Ishkhanyan, expressing desire so that democracy be at such a high level in Armenia that we will not need such structures in our country anymore. To remind, still in January the RA MFA press secretary Tigran Balayan informed the media outlets that there are problems in connection with the prolongation of activities of the OSCE office in Yerevan.
