PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN CRACKS THE DOOR WIDER FOR NDI;

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 001679 SIPDIS SIPDIS C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (CHANGED DATE IN PARAGRAPH 2) E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2016 TAGS: PREL EAID PHUM KDEM AM SUBJECT: PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN CRACKS THE DOOR WIDER FOR NDI; ENGAGED ON PRACTICALITIES OF FREE ELECTIONS AND MCC CRITERIA REF: A. A) YEREVAN 1231 ¶B. B) YEREVAN 1530 YEREVAN 00001679 001.4 OF 002 Classified By: CDA A.F. GODFREY, reasons 1.4 (b,d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: President Kocharian used his meeting with EUR/ACE Tom Adams to complain at length about allegedly anti-government NDI activities, while reiterating appreciation for other NDI programs. He stated that NDI would be registered "after the elections." However, NDI would remain free to operate in the meantime, and that its program director could travel freely to and from Armenia. Adams also raised the elections and anti-corruption in the context of Armenia's MCC indicators. Kocharian agreed, though expressed frustration that MCC democracy/human rights indicators were vaguely defined. He focused on "brass tacks" challenges of devliering free elections, but embraced the importance of that effort. Overall, he was pleased with status of bilateral relationship and grateful for U.S. assistance. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) EUR Assistance Coordinator Tom Adams called on President Kocharian November 8, as part of a range of bilateral meetings, in lieu of the normal U.S.-Armenia Economic Task Force (USATF) forum. The fall USATF would normally have taken place in Washington on the margins of IMF/World Bank meetings, (which this year took place in Singapore instead). The loss of the normally-scheduled USATF proved a hidden blessing, creating the opportunity for Adams to meet directly with the President, Foreign Minister, and other senior officials not normally part of the Finance Ministry-chaired USATF format. Kocharian was grateful for the visit and appealed for more high-level USG visitors, as partial antidote for the lack of a resident U.S. Ambassador in Armenia currently. He expressed great satisfaction with the overall level of bilateral cooperation and assistance. -------------- PRESIDENT ANGRY WITH NDI -------------- ¶3. (C) Knowing it was on the president's mind, Adams opened with the contentious issue of NDI. He said he had communicated with NDI officials--including NDI President Ken Wollack and Chairman Madeline Albright, in addition to NDI's Eurasia director--regarding Kocharian's concerns about NDI, which Kocharian had raised with departing Ambassador Evans and which had been reiterated by recent dipnote. Adams observed that NDI had not been as transparent with the GOAM or with Embassy Yerevan as we would have liked about some of its activities, which could have been misconstrued by the GOAM as something NDI was trying to hide. In fact, this was simply a problem of poor communication. He also acknowledged that the former NDI country director in Armenia had remained in touch with Armenian contacts from overseas, in a way that also lent itself to misinterpretation, and said he had NDI's promise that those problematic, unoffical contacts with Armenian politicians would be curtailed. He asked Kocharian to take him at his word that the U.S.-funded NDI programs had no anti-government intent, and that Armenia register NDI promptly. Adams promised that if NDI failed to fulfill its half of the bargain in providing the full transparency requested, he was prepared to cut USG funding for NDI programs in Armenia. He also noted, however, the high profile NDI enjoys in Washington, and that Congressional and other American political observers would take a dim view of GOAM action against NDI. Adams said he would ask NDI Washington officials to visit Armenia to communicate their programs and intentions to the president more clearly ¶4. (C) Kocharian thanked Adams for taking on the issue. He reiterated his position (ref A) that NDI had a "two-tier" program in Armenia. The first tier was above-board and welcome, while the second tier represented a clandestine effort to rally opposition political forces to act against the government. Saying he had raised this issue many times with U.S. officials, he allegd that each time he raised it with the USG, NDI would lay low for about a month, and then underground activity would resume: "secret gatherings" in changing locations and foreign trips with opposition activists. The former NDI country director had been expelled, but continued coordinating anti-government agitation from abroad. Kocharian also complained that NDI's Eurasia director had a long-standing, bitter grudge against Armenia, and encouraged anti-Armenian activities beyond the full knowledge of the embassy or State Department. -------------- NDI REGISTRATION "AFTER THE ELECTIONS" -------------- YEREVAN 00001679 002.4 OF 002 ¶5. (C) To Adams question, Kocharian said very clearly--repeating himself to be sure he was understood--that NDI would be registered only after Armenia's 2007 parliamentary elections. The Charge followed up with a question about the long-pending residence permit for NDI's Canadian-citizen program director in Yerevan, Andrew Bennett. Kocharian appeared surprised and genuinely confused by the question. He assured that Bennett is perfectly free to come and go from Armenia as he pleases. ¶6. (C) RAPID RESPONSE: Within days of Adams' meeting with Kocharian, Bennett returned to the office responsible for visas and residence permits, the OVIR division of the national police. In a sharp contrast to his many previous visits, which had involved endless waiting in line and circular conversations with OVIR staff, on this visit Bennett was hailed by an OVIR superviser almost as soon as he walked in the door. He was immediately led to a superviser's, and within a few minutes his paperwork was completed for a 90-day, multiple-entry visa, as an interim solution while the residence permit was processed. Bennett had a clear sense that the word had come from on high that OVIR was to get Bennett's status normalized. He has since travelled abroad and returned with no difficulty. ¶7. (C) COMMENT: While we do not, of course, believe Kocharian's charge about a clandestine NDI program to overthrow the government, we are aware that NDI's former country director has engaged in certain behaviors that went outside the envelope of appropriate conduct. We suspect that Kocharian's intelligence apparatus has pieced together a damning mosaic of NDI, out of misconstrued messages/events, some poor judgment and slightly inappropriate behavior from the former country director, and rumors and innuendo gathered from informants seeking a payoff--all viewed through a prism of anti-NDI suspicion prevalent lately throughout Eurasia. We can also easily see how a certain tone of cynical gallows-humor that might likely find its way into unsecure e-mails or phone conversations between NDI Washington and its field office in Yerevan might be misconstrued as something far more sinister by Armenian intelligence officers who miss the joke. We therefore tend to think that Kocharian's mistrust of NDI is genuine, not a veiled pushback toward democratic programs. In this context, Kocharian's promise to register NDI after the elections, and that the NDI program director can travel freely in the meantime, is not a bad outcome. NDI can best help this situation through full transparency and by engaging at a high level with the GOAM to allay suspicions. GODFREY