Armenian Iraq Contingent: Speaker of

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 002525 SIPDIS STATE/EUR FOR DAS LAURA KENNEDY E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2014 TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS AM IZ SUBJECT: Armenian Iraq Contingent: Speaker of Parliament Asks Our Help Ref: Yerevan 2517 Classified by Amb. John Evans, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C ) Over lunch November 23, Armenian National Assembly speaker Artur Baghdasarian shared with Ambassador the likely time-line for parliamentary consideration of the deployment of Armenia's non- combatant contingent to the Iraq Coalition and asked our assistance in mustering arguments to be deployed in the expected debate. ¶2. (C ) The Speaker said the Constitutional Court was expected to transmit the case for action to the National Assembly on November 30. He confirmed that technically, the issue before the Court and prospectively before the National Assembly would be the narrow one of the bilateral Armenian-Polish memorandum signed during President Kocharian's September visit to Warsaw. He said the National Assembly was expected to take up the issue at its December 5-7 session. ¶3. C) In this connection, the Speaker noted that the National Assembly had been receiving so many inquiries about the proposed deployment that it had had to set up a hot line to deal with them. Although the issue had purposely been narrowly defined, once it reached the National Assembly, the scope of the discussion would be difficult to control. The Defense Minister would make the Government's case for the deployment, but the Speaker anticipated that he would bear the brunt of the hostile debate, which could come from the opposition or even from certain quarters within the parliamentary coalition. He asked the Ambassador if he could provide whatever up-to- date supporting materials might be available. ¶4. ( C ) Action request: Embassy requests guidance as to what materials, in addition to the excellent fact sheets available through State and CENTCOM websites, might best assist the Speaker (and the Defense Minister, who has not asked, but may) in making the case for the Armenian non-combatant deployment. Facts and figures demonstrating what other comparable countries are contributing specially neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan, as well as Central Asian and East European states ould serve this purpose best. We do not expect anyone to generate new materials, but would appreciate any guidance as to what is the best material currently available. EVANS