KOCHARIAN DEAD SET AGAINST ATTENDING BSEC SUMMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 000788 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/18/2017 TAGS: PREL NATO OSCE TU AM SUBJECT: KOCHARIAN DEAD SET AGAINST ATTENDING BSEC SUMMIT IN ISTANBUL REF: ANKARA 1506 Classified By: CDA A.F.Godfrey for reason 1.4 (b, d) ¶1. (C) On June 16, Charge raised the issue of Armenia's attendance at the upcoming BSEC Summit with President Kocharian. Kocharian said that there was "absolutely no way" he would consider attending. In fact, he would have preferred that FM Oskanian also skip the event, but relented under Oskanian's persuasion. We made our arguments clearly: the opportunity to take a step forward toward reconciliation with Turkey was too important to miss; the meeting with the other BSEC heads of state would be valuable for Armenia; the BSEC venue should be exploited by Armenia to prevent further isolation in the region. Kocharian said that identical arguments were made by the U.S. and others in 1999 to convince him to attend the OSCE Summit in Istanbul. He allowed himself to be persuaded to attend, but relations with Turkey had not progressed at all. As far as relations with other BSEC states, he continued, Armenia has excellent relations with all but two (meaning, of course, Turkey and Azerbaijan),and attending this Summit would change nothing. Comment -------------- ¶2. (C) It seems clear to us that Kocharian cannot be convinced that attending this Summit would be beneficial to Armenia. As he approaches the end of his last term as President, Kocharian seems to be becoming even less flexible than he has been in the past. We regret that Armenia will almost certainly not have appropriate representation at this important regional event. GODFREY