An Armenian political activist told “168 Hours” that the OSCE/ODIHR is implementing observatory missions in countries where there are interests of great powers.
“If this is not the case, then isn’t it suspicious why, for example, the ODIHR only sent a five-member “Election Evaluation Mission” to Turkey in 2002 in a country which has a rich history of military intervention in public life and state overturns; a country whose population reaches 60 million and has a 780,000 square meter territory? So, the OSCE has started to pressure the countries where there is a clash of interests of great powers. It’s good to see that the OSCE is pressing, but they can’t apply double standards”.
OSCE standing representative from the Russian Federation Alexey Borodavkin announced that the claims of the ODIHR rating the elections based on “golden standards” are a “myth” and that “their ratings are often not based on Copenhagen standards, but rather the political sympathy or no sympathy for the ODIHR”.