Yesterday the foreign minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanyan commented on the notorious document signed by some pro-Russian CIS governments, including Armenia, on an initiative of Russia, and presented to the OSCE. The document was a proposal on sending fewer OSCE election observers to the CIS countries. During a news conference on November 5 the Armenian reporters asked the CoE Secretary General Terry Davis to comment on this initiative. However, the Armenian foreign minister Vardan Oskanyan also wanted to answer this question. He said the document had been perceived wrongly. According to the Armenian foreign minister, the proposal refers to the OSCE long-term missions which are financed from the OSCE budget. To relieve the financial burden of the budget, as Vardan Oskanyan says, a proposal was made to cut long-term observation missions to 50 observers. According to Vardan Oskanyan, it will not affect Armenia in any way because so far not more than 30 observers have been included in the OSCE long-term observation mission for observing different elections. Vardan Oskanyan also said Armenia has joined this proposal only to increase the effectiveness of the OSCE observation missions. As to Terry Davis, he said he hopes this initiative will not affect observation of elections in Armenia but he also said it might be better if the OSCE answers this question, while he preferred to speak about the CoE observation mission. He said before the presidential election the CoE is going to implement a ten-point program which will focus on the freedom of the media. According to the CoE Secretary General, it is not important what the media report two or three weeks before the election. It is important what they report three or four months before the election because it affects the decision of voters.
