DAS KAIDANOW MEETS WITH OPPOSITION, CIVIL SOCIETY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000758 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/CARC E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/25/2019 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL OVIP KDEM TU AM SUBJECT: DAS KAIDANOW MEETS WITH OPPOSITION, CIVIL SOCIETY YEREVAN 00000758 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch. Reasons 1.4 (b,d). SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) Turkey-Armenia relations and the recently signed Protocols dominated the conversation between EUR DAS Kaidanow in her meetings with a former Armenian President and the Dashnak Political Party. Former President Levon Ter-Petrossian wants more attention paid to the problems of democratic freedoms and corruption in Armenia and believes that progress in those areas would aid President Sargsian's desire for ratification of the Protocols. The Dashnaks see the Protocols as fundamentally flawed, believing they disadvantage Armenia on the issues of genocide recognition, the border with the Turkey, and Nagorno-Karabakh. Civil society leaders cautioned against the authorities being given a free pass on democracy and human rights by the international community in exchange for their focus on Turkey-Armenia normalization. END SUMMARY. DISCUSSIONS WITH OPPOSITION AND CIVIL SOCIETY LEADERS -------------- -------------- ¶2. (C) EUR DAS Tina Kaidanow met with Armenian opposition groups on October 21 to discuss domestic and foreign policies of Armenia. She met with former-President Levon Ter-Petrossian (LTP),who was President of Armenia from 1991 to 1998 and now serves as the leader of the Armenian National Congress, a coalition of 18 political parties. She then met with representatives of the Dashnaktsutiun (Dashnak) Party, an Armenian nationalist party founded over 120 years ago and whose institutional memory includes both the Armenian massacres of 1915 and the short-lived Armenian republic in the early 1920s. She raised the issues of the Armenia-Turkey Protocols, Nagorno-Karabakh, the state of democracy and personal freedoms in Armenia, and corruption in the government. ¶3. (C) During both meetings, DAS Kaidanow stressed that the Armenia-Turkey Protocols are important to the USG and that an open border would benefit both countries. The USG will continue to support the normalization process with Turkey and support an open discussion in both societies on the process. It is also important to the USG, Kaidanow noted, to keep the dialogue moving forward on Nagorno-Karabakh and for the Presidents of Armenian and Turkey to continue to actively 
participate in the Minsk Group process. Both of those issues are responsible for Armenia's isolation, which in turn adversely affects the economic and democratic development of Armenia. LTP --- ¶4. (C) Former-President Levon Ter-Petrossian laid out his sense of the four most important issues facing Armenia: the lack of democracy, corruption in the government, Armenia-Turkey relations, and the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh. He said he understood why the world, and the USG, is focused on the last two issues, but insisted the two domestic issues should also draw the world's attention. Ter-Petrossian claimed that the USG is not pushing hard enough for democratic freedoms in Armenia, including demanding the release of detainees who have been in jail since the 2008 postelection unrest. If the USG were interested in democratic reforms, it would provide more support to Armenian opposition groups, LTP said. He argued that the national media is closed to the opposition, and that if they had access to just one national television station, he and the other opposition groups could argue for personal freedoms and fight against corruption. LTP pointed out that a more open society would actually benefit the current government in ratifying the Protocols, since more transparency from President Sargsian would help convince the general population of the validity of the rapprochement with Turkey. ¶5. (C) DAS Kaidanow strongly disagreed with LTP's characterization of the USG's acceptance of the lack of democratic reform in Armenia. She noted that the USG has and will continue to raise the issues of democracy and personal freedoms with the GOAM, including pressing for the release of political prisoners. The U.S. had withheld significant Millennium Challenge Corporation funding from Armenia because of its failure to meet democratic standards, a step that had obviously had impact on the government. But on those subjects and on corruption, she pointed out, Armenian society must step up and also demand changes. The USG can provide resources, but the Armenians must in the end be responsible. YEREVAN 00000758 002.2 OF 002 DASHNAKS -------------- ¶6. (C) The three representatives of the Dashnak Party (Armen Rustamian, Representative of the Dashnaks' Supreme Body; Giro Manoyan, Head of the Armenian Cause and Political Affairs Office of the Dashnaks' Bureau, and Levon Mrktchian, a member of the Dashnaks' Bureau) concentrated their discussion with DAS Kaidanow on Armenia-Turkey relations and on what they view as the adverse affects of the Protocols. The Dashnaks said they looked at the current process through the prism of their 120-year history and prior dealings with Turkey. They welcomed the involvement of the USG in the normalization process, as they remembered the USG's support for an independent Armenia after World War I. The Dashnaks maintained they were not opposed to an open border with Turkey but are opposed to the terms of the Protocols, including the creation of an historical sub-commission; the fact that, in their view, Armenia will have to accept the current border with Turkey; and the notion that Armenia's claims to Nagorno-Karabakh are not recognized in the protocols. According to the Dashnaks, it would be better to take more time to negotiate these elements than to make a decision now that could &endanger the nation.8 ¶7. (C) DAS Kaidanow argued that isolation has harmed Armenia's development and reminded the Dashnak representatives of how the incursion of Russian troops into Georgia last year exacerbated the effects of Armenia's isolation. An isolated society hinders economic development and the advance of democracy. She acknowledged that the Protocols have conditions that the Dashnaks may find objectionable, but that should spur them to an open discussion within the Parliamentary framework on those points. From the USG perspective, the positive elements of the Protocols outweigh the negatives and the process should continue to move forward. CIVIL SOCIETY LEADERS -------------- ¶8. (C) DAS Kaidanow met with three civil society representatives to discuss democracy and human rights challenges and hear their thoughts on the Armenia-Turkey protocols. Larisa Minasian, Director of the Open Society Institute, claimed that there has been a general decline across the board on democracy, human rights, the judiciary, children's rights, prisons, and the fight against corruption. She noted that local NGOs are no longer fighting for policy changes, but simply trying to defend the meager progress that has been made. Minasian maintained that the international community is not presenting a consistent position to the GOAM on these issues, citing the fact that after the Millennium Challenge Corporation suspended the funds for road construction, the World Bank stepped in to finish the roads. On the Turkey-Armenia protocols, Isabella Sargsian of the Eurasia Partnership Foundation said they raised concerns within civil society because of the overall lack of transparency in Armenia's political processes. That said, she stated that--based on Eurasia's many cross-border projects--both Armenians and Turks are interested in learning more about each other. ¶9. (C) Boris Navasardian, president of the Yerevan Press Club, told DAS Kaidanow that the protocols and the improvement of Armenia-Turkey relations are taking precedence over the development of democracy and human rights. Armenian society is so focused on the relationship with Turkey that is easy, he said, for the GOAM to ignore domestic issues. Minasian agreed, arguing that the authorities are using Turkey to divert people's attention from needed reforms on the democracy, human rights, and good governance fronts. In her view, "the pressure on democratic reform is inversely proportional to interest in Turkey)Armenia relations." The three agreed that, because of this, the longer the ratification process lingered on, the more damaging the impact would be to those seeking democratic changes. Moreover, they argued, if the protocols do not succeed, then popular criticism directed against the government could also hurt possible reforms by provoking a government backlash. DAS Kaidanow assured the civil society figures that while the USG supports the normalization process, it does not see the improvement in Armenia-Turkey relations as a substitute for democratic development, and promised that the USG will continue to push for greater personal freedoms in Armenia. ¶10. (U) DAS Kaidanow has cleared on this cable. YOVANOVITCH