Armenia’s former FM Vartan Oskanian issues a statement.

Armenia’s former foreign minister and head of the “Civilitas” Foundation Vartan Oskanian issued a statement commenting on the rumors about his possible cooperation with political parties during the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia.

In his statement Mr Oskanian expresses his deep confidence that free and fair elections are of paramount importance for Armenia. The country needs serious reforms, and Mr Oskanian believes the country’s citizens share this opinion. Reforms will be implemented provided a new alignment of forces is formed in Armenia’s new parliament. Only free and fair elections can guarantee this. This is the main reason for Mr Oskanian’s involvement in politics, and the rumors about his association with the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) are not without basis. Mr. Oskanian has discussed the issue of his political involvement both with the PAP and with other political forces. He has time to make a final decision, but the domestic political developments may make him take a prompt decision.

Several processes are simultaneously developing now. The first is backstage negotiations between different parties, including the coalition ones. The second is the political pressure on different partiers, especially the PAP. The third is the use of administrative facilities at the election stage, and finally, the current discussions on the proportional representation and single-winner voting systems, which is the most important.

Given the present political situation in Armenia, it is clear that the proportional representation system is the best way of holding the elections. It is impossible, however. The parliamentary majority is uncompromising in its attitude. So it is desirable that all the forces supportive of the proportional representation system – the PAP, Armenian National Congress (ANC), Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D), Free Democrats and others – stop wasting time after the upcoming parliamentary hearing and turn their general approach into a national movement, without ruling out even closer cooperation during the parliamentary elections this May, says Vartan Oskanian’s statement.