NDI PRESIDENT'S VISIT SPEAKS TO ARMENIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 YEREVAN 001685 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR EUR/CARC, EUR/ACE, DRL E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/29/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM EAID KDEM AM SUBJECT: NDI PRESIDENT'S VISIT SPEAKS TO ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT CONCERNS ABOUT NDI ACTIVITIES REF: A. YEREVAN 1679 ¶B. YEREVAN 1684 YEREVAN 00001685 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: A/DCM Steve Banks, reasons 1.4 (b,d) Summary -------------- 1 (C) In a one-day visit to Armenia on November 29, NDI President Ken Wollack sought to bring greater transparency to NDI's goals and activities and to allay often-expressed fears that NDI seeks to foment revolution in Armenia. Wollack succeeded to a limited degree, but in a lengthy meeting with Kocharian's Chief of Staff, was shown the depth of GOAM distrust and sense of grievance with NDI. FM Oskanian struck a more collaborative tone, offering MFA help as a line of communication to the much more skeptical presidency, while affirming NDI's need to address GOAM concerns. Wollack promised full transparency with the GOAM, requested designated POCs for regular liaision with NDI's local office, and promised to return early and often, if need be, to continue the conversation with GOAM officials. END SUMMARY -------------- -------------- CHIPPING AWAY DEEP ARMENIAN DISTRUST OF NDI INTENTIONS -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) The GOAM's dissatisfaction and mistrust of NDI's activities in Armenia is not news (see refs). Kocharian renewed this complaint during EUR/ACE Assistance Coordinator Tom Adams' November visit to Armenia, during which Adams pledged to ask NDI leadership to visit Yerevan and brief the GOAM fully on its programs, activities, and intentions. NDI President Ken Wollack visited Yerevan on November 29 in response to Adams' request. Wollack met with Presidential Chief of Staff Armen Gevorgian and Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian, seeking to clear the air between NDI and the GOAM and to clarify NDI's goals and activities for Armenian leaders. ¶3. (C) Wollack met first with Gevorgian, who unloaded a thorough and passionate exposition of Armenia's perceived grievances against NDI, more stridently than we had yet heard from the GOAM. He accused NDI of trying to broker a unified opposition bloc, of actively campaigning with opposition parties against the November 2005 constitutional referendum, and of teaching techniques of boycott, civil disobedience, and "how to annul elections." He asked, rhetorically, if NDI 
was working for regime change; saying he hoped at least that NDI's regime change goal was intended to be accomplished by means of elections. Characterizing these allegations repeatedly as "facts," Gevorgian said these activities are unacceptable to the Armenian government. He repeated several times that the GOAM has complained about this activity for two years, with no real change. NDI's former director was removed, but "the same work continues." He said that the GOAM had no desire for a confrontation with NDI, but NDI was on a path toward confrontation with its activities. Gevorgian said these (alleged) NDI misdeeds threatened Armenia's internal stablity, and the government would not allow that to happen--even if it should cost them the Millenium Challenge program. He twice said that the GOAM "would use all lawful means" to address NDI's alleged threat. He pointedly noted that Armenia was not like Shevardnadze's Georgia; not a weak state ready to be toppled. Armenia "has a lawful government," strong enough to safeguard itself from lawlessness. ¶4. (C) Gevorgian commented that Armenians--in government, opposition, and society at large--perceive NDI as an arm of the United States Government, whose quasi-official status allows it to speak more frankly and act more directly than would be possible to the U.S. Embassy. His words suggested that he himself sees NDI precisely that way. He noted, for example, that when the GOAM complains about NDI to American officials, they make no protest that NDI is a private NGO, over whom the USG has no influence, but rather reply that they will "speak to NDI" about the complaints. Gevorgian wondered aloud why the USG claims to have such a good relationship with Armenia and so many areas of good cooperation, yet still sponsors, as he sees it, NDI's subversive political activity against the GOAM. ¶5. (C) As Kocharian has done before, Gevorgian was careful to concede that not all NDI programs were harmful or deemed unacceptable to the GOAM. Some NDI programs had the GOAM's full blessing, such as civil society development, public awareness building, and other activities funded by USAID Armenia. President Kocharian supported these open activities YEREVAN 00001685 002.2 OF 003 of NDI in Armenia. -------------- -------------- "I DON'T RECOGNIZE THAT NDI YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT" -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) Wollack affirmed that NDI has no interest, in Armenia or anywhere, in the outcome (who wins) of other countries' elections, but only in a fair process. He pointed out that NDI is not an arm of the USG; though it receives substantial USG funding, it also receives significant funding from non-USG sources, including the British, Dutch, Swedish, and Irish governments, the World Bank, and the United Nations. He noted that he himself (in a personal, not official NDI capacity) was chairman of the U.S. Committee for the UN Development Program (UNDP). If NDI were a revolution-fomenting organization, these other institutions would keep their distance. He noted that in Armenia NDI has worked with both governmental and opposition political parties, and would be happy to do more than it has done with the ruling coalition parties if they were interested. ¶7. (C) On brokering an opposition bloc, Wollack agreed that it would be an inappropriate activity for NDI, but concluded there is sometimes a fine line. In any country with more than 30 active political parties, it is natural to counsel (in the abstract) that this represents a fractured political system, and that it would be more effective if a number of the smaller parties could band together into coalitions around some shared views. Such a statement in the abstract would be appropriate NDI training. Suggesting that specific political parties should ally with each other would not be. ¶8. (C) Gevorgian accepted Wollack's word about NDI's mandate, but gave no real ground. He went on to say that if Wollack's words were true, the local NDI office must be doing things without the knowledge or approval of NDI Washington. Gevorgian would not be budged from his "facts." NDI or NDI representatives had without question done these things. Wollack suggested that much of this disagreement about past activity must arise out sincere misunderstandings, poor communication, and bad information. He hoped his visit could mark the turning of a page in NDI's relationship with the GOAM. He recommitted NDI to full transparency, offering to come back to Yerevan as often as necessary, and was ready to meet with President Kocharian at any time. He asked for President Kocharian to designate a point of contact within the government with whom NDI Armenia staff could be in regularly touch, on a week by week basis, to share information about what it is doing in Armenia. Gevorgian was receptive, but did not desig nate a representative. ¶9. (C) Wollack also pitched Gevorgian on NDI's registration and on the residency permit for NDI's local Canadian-national program director. The charge reminded Gevorgian of Kocharian's words that the local NDI director's residence status would be resolved immediately, although the president said that proper registration for NDI as an organization would have to wait until after Armenia's elections. Gevorgian promised to look into the residence permit. -------------- FM OSKANIAN: "THE GOOD COP" -------------- ¶10. (C) Wollack next met with Foreign Minister Oskanian, who was able, as so often is the case, neatly to bridge the gap between Western thinking and local perception, and said that while the great majority of concerns were a matter of mistaken perceptions, they were no less serious for that. He affirmed that NDI's activities had been of great concern to President Kocharian and many others in the Armenian government. He welcomed Wollack's visit as an excellent first step toward rebuilding trust. Oskanian said it would be a pity for misunderstandings or complications to get in the way of NDI's important work toward this goal. He said he himself mostly saw the positive side of NDI's programs, but that the President had informed him of serious concerns about NDI and instructed him to send a non-paper to the U.S. Government complaining about it. -------------- -------------- COMMENT: PARTY TRAINING, THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS -------------- -------------- ¶11. (C) Wollack's visit was a useful step in our effort to rebuild badly frayed lines of communication and trust between NDI and Armenian authorities. We believe that President YEREVAN 00001685 003.2 OF 003 Kocharian and his staff sincerely believe that NDI has acted subversively in Armenia, while NDI is equally sincere in its professions of innocence. Kocharian's intelligence reports, we have little doubt, offer him a distorted, funhouse-mirror view of innocent NDI activities--warped by a filter of preconceived suspicions. It is also quite likely that some Armenian politicians freely use and abuse NDI's name for their own ends, both amongst each other and to curry favor with government officials. GODFREY