On 27 March, a press conference was held at the Civilitas Foundation, chaired by Civilitas Director Salpi Ghazarian and attorney Vahe Grigoryan. Also participating were US Ambassador John Heffern, German Ambassador Reiner Morell, Polish Ambassador Zdzislaw Raczynski, Swiss Ambassador Konstantin Obolensky, Norwegian Honorary Consul Timothy Straight and EU representative Andrej Didenko.
Salpi: I will ask the ambassadors to say a few words, but I want to say something more than a simple thank you. I think that when we talk about democratization, at the end of the day we are talking about human dignity and the right for people to lead their own lives and that is something that we support and work for at Civilitas. And that is something that we expect of each of our staff, that is something that we believe in, and very grateful that it is that work that the ambassadors here by their presence are supporting.
Thank you again. Ambassadors, those of you who would like to say something, Ambassador Heffern.
Ambassador Heffern. 9:20 Salpi, Thank you very much, and thanks to you for coming today to hear Civilitas’s story on the situation. I just have couple of comments to make: One is that the US Embassy has been working with Civilitas for a number of years on a number of projects and we consider – we, the United States and we, the US embassy – consider Civilitas and its partner press organization CivilNet really important partners for us, for the international community here in Armenia. We think that Civilitas and Civilnet are really important partners for us, for friends of Armenia. We also think and this is actually more important, we think that CivilNet and Civilitas are really critically important to Armenia’s democracy and that’s why we as embassies here work with them so closely. On the specific cases of the 40 projects referred to by Salpi and Vahe, three of them were, are, US projects. We work with Civilitas on these three projects. Two, I believe had to do with some library work, one was some documentaries that we worked on together and we, the US embassy, have no concerns at all about how these projects were done; they were conducted and concluded on budget, within budget and on time and we have no question about how US taxpayer funds were spent through these 3 projects on the NSS’s list. And we definitely believe there is no victim here; as far as we know there is nobody reporting anything, there is no complainant reporting any violations of any sort and so we believe that there is nothing to be investigated by NSS or by anybody else and certainly nothing ever of a critical nature. So, thank you, Salpi and Vahe, for what you do, thanks for Civilitas and Civilnet as partners of the international community here and as really key players in the future of Armenia’s democracy.
Reiner Morell. I could only agree with what my colleague, the American ambassador just told you. We are very happy that an NGO like Civilitas exists in this country doing very good work. We like very much to work together with Civilitas which we did in the past because we think that Civilitas makes a difference to this country, to the civil society, to further democratic way especially in the TV sector, in the radio sector, giving follow up to cases, like the case of Raffi. So the work is very important and this is why we are involved in financing this. There is no harm in financing an organization which sticks to the law and I can’t see anything which is beyond that. We have two cases, two times given money to finance this NGO with the other donors coming from Germany and we have made our assessment. Wherever we give money, people have to make the bill and we had all the paperwork, we checked it and we made our ok.Yes, we tested it and so we can’t see any wrongdoing in that. This is the first point.
The second point that I would like to make is that, sometime before I already mentioned — that it’s the rule of law. This is something this country wants to fulfill so this is a case where they can fulfill it, or not fulfill it. You can only charge somebody on grounds. There must be initial grounds to start a filing. So far I haven’t heard what is the real grounds. So it couldn’t be the case that you start and ask for some papers with the intention, ‘maybe I get something, which then might be my ground.’ This would be the wrong. I hope it’s not this way here. We would not like to see that reverse case.
Second, I don’t know. The National Security Service in my eyes is a special organization. At least in Germany we have a prosecutor, prosecutor together with the police, they look into this matters, and if there is a case, then you go to the judge. But there is nothing like Security Service. I am just a guest here. I don’t know on what grounds.
Another point maybe is that it could be that Armenia could spoil a positive image a positive profile which it’s trying to build up. In fact, it is building up a positive profile with all the political movements to sign an association agreement with the European Union, with which we are pleased very much. We would like to see that, but on the other hand things like that could damage the profile and i think it’s not in the best interest of the country.
Konstantin Obolensky. 15:45. Thank you very much Salpi, for giving me the opportunity to speak here to the media. I would just like to state here to declare that the Embassy of Switzerland cooperated with the Civilitas Foundation in one project which is called “To improve water supply in border villages of Syunik region.” We have cooperated in 2009 and early 2010. Well, after the completion of the project as usual we have mandated an auditor’s firm to make an auditor’s report. This is usual practice. This we do with all our development cooperation programs. And we can also here, at this moment, declare that this project has been implemented according to the contract. So, we do not have any pretensions towards Civilitas and I think this is an important one. Thank you.
Timothy Straight, 16:55. Norway believes very strongly that a vibrant and healthy free media is important for the development of democracy in any country. Norway identified Civilitas way back in the beginning when they were founded as a good vehicle for promoting the development of a good vibrant healthy free media in Armenia. We have supported Civilitas since the first day more or less, and among the projects they have implemented on behalf of the Norwegian taxpayers are a census project: going out and getting the opinions of people in the street so that people understand what people are thinking on the streets; secondly promoting a healthy political dialogue through a series of public forums. And then, in addition to this the now quite-famous, I may say, the end of the year reports that Civilitas is producing that are much appreciated by a lot of researchers, governments and individuals around the world. And I can say that even when the funding for those polling projects and the policy discussion forum ended, Civilitas has taken the initiative to continue those projects through their own means. That is what we are working towards, that is what we want — that the good habits to be introduced into Armenia and then continue by their own means and that is precisely what Civilitas has been able to do with Norwegian financing. So, Norway has absolutely no problem with how Civilitas has used the funding, what they have done, what the results are. We are extremely happy and we are extremely proud to be a partner for Civilitas to this very day. Thank you very much.
Response to Questions
John Heffern: 29.40. On Mr. Oskanian’s case: I made a statement about it last year when his immunity was lifted by the Parliament and I’ll stick with that. I will stick with that statement that I made last year. Thank you.
John Heffern: 31:06. I am really not in the business to judge people’s motives but I can tell you what it is not. I cannot tell you what it is. I described clearly what it is not. It is not, in my view, a legitimate criminal investigation. I cannot tell you what it is.
John Heffern: 33:19. Yes.
Reiner Morell: 33:31. What should I say? Yes.