 In the President’s speech in Strasbourg at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, and especially in the questions and answers that followed, there were many misrepresentations, but three in particular must be disowned by the administration. First, to claim that Armenia has not recognized the independence of Karabakh because Armenia accepts the principle of territorial integrity is to misrepresent Armenia’s position of the last 20 years, including his own years.
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 Today, I once again visited Raffi Hovannisian, former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Armenia and founder of the Heritage Party, who has been on a hunger strike for the past eight days. In speaking with him, it becomes clear that the leader of one segment of the opposition is determined to continue this political protest as an expression of his disagreement with current policies. Nevertheless, with every passing day, the hunger strike is affecting his health – the effects of which are visibly apparent.
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 President Serzh Sargsyan’s failure to go to Lisbon was an additional foreign policy blunder and an involuntary sign that Armenia’s diplomacy has accepted defeat. Acting upset and boycotting the NATO summit will not bring Armenia any diplomatic dividends. The practitioners of Armenia’s foreign policy should have done their best to avoid an unacceptable statement on Nagorno-Karabakh.
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 Armenia’s double-digit economic decline continues, and is approaching 20 percent. The question in everyone’s mind is how long this drop will continue and whether the government’s policies are effective or sufficient to stop and eventually reverse it.
Today there are two substantial problems with the government’s response to this economic situation. The first is that the government’s guiding document, the budget adopted for 2009, is obsolete. The document is based on 9 percent economic growth while today we are experiencing 18 percent decline. There is a 27 percent discrepancy in the budget. Such a distorted document cannot serve as a blueprint or even a simple guideline for the government’s economic programs.
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The political debate that should have taken place over whether and how Armenia’s delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly can and should interact with the delegations of Azerbaijan and Turkey has not taken place. Instead, we have been witness to inappropriate – that’s a polite way of saying vulgar and insulting – assessments of the Armenian parliamentarian involved.
One wonders if a male parliamentarian had sought the support of Turkish and Azerbaijani parliamentarians on a resolution regarding Armenia’s domestic issues, how would the political elite have reacted? Parliamentarian Zaruhi Postanjian is a woman, a member of the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party and a vocal, committed human rights advocate. Her political steps can be debated. Her personal life, patriotism and gender ought not.
It is at our peril that Armenia avoids political debate, sidesteps real discussion about the ever-tightening political situation in our region, especially vis-à-vis Armenia’s neighbors. Offending those whose domestic policies are different, drawing fezzes on the heads of those whose policies towards our neighbors is perceived as too tolerant -- all this means foregoing political consensus in favor of imposed policy. There are social implications, too. Striking at the dignity of half of Armenia's population means women and girls will be even less willing and prepared to help build a country.
All because we refuse to get involved in the hard work of debating policy and articulating our vision of our future.
On June 19, the National Assembly, in a special session voted 98 to one (and three abstentions) to accept the President’s proposal regarding an amnesty for those in prison. Although it is easy to assume that this proposal is aimed at finding a face-saving way to release the opposition leaders who have been detained, it is not at all obvious that this is the final intent of this decision that will apply to those who have been sentenced to five years or less, and are not repeat offenders.
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Armenia-Turkey relations have dominated public discourse over recent months and understandably so. As a result, our attention has strayed from a topic that is at least equally crucial for our national security – Armenia’s economy. The new indicators issued by the Armenian Statistical Service make plain that the economy is in free fall. In the first four months of 2009, our GDP declined 9.7% over the same period last year. There is the danger that this will become double-digit decline. Poverty, which had been palpably declining, will now rise according to World Bank projections. Growing unemployment is becoming more visible. Indeed, a full 40 percent of employers foresee further cuts, according to the Economy and Values Research Center. Armenia is in recession and this can be explained by a series of factors of which the global economic crisis is only one.
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The official statistics released in February simply reiterate the inarguable truth: Armenia is heading towards a recession.
Although these facts are not being hidden, they are not being explained either. The government continues to believe (and rightfully so) in the importance of confidence as a key factor of economic stability and is therefore trying to inspire trust and faith. But it is doing so without basing its oratory and encouragement on economic realities, or without actions which assure the population that steps are being taken to ameliorate the situation.
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 The Armenian Statistical Service March report on Armenia’s economic activity is evidence that Armenia is not out of the woods of the economic crisis. Following 2009’s 14.3 percent decline – the second biggest drop in the world – it could have been expected that two years on, when the world has already come out of the crisis, our own economy would be growing at least 5 to 6 percent, year to year. Instead, it appears that Armenia’s economy in March 2011 grew not at all compared to the same period last year.
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 The ruling coalition’s announcement highlights the authorities’ disregard of democracy, elections and the public will. The ruling coalition has openly declared that in the upcoming parliamentary elections they are not prepared to do what political forces are fundamentally meant to do: that is, to enter into open competition
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Azerbaijan’s minister of foreign affairs has found generally acceptable the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ new version of the principles for the settlement of the Karabakh conflict, proposed last December in Greece. This is the first occasion since 1997 that Baku has found the mediators’ proposal acceptable.
Now, it is Armenia’s turn and it will be difficult for Armenia to say "Yes" to the version that took shape first in Krakow in July 2009, then in Athens at the end of 2009 and then in Sochi on January 25, 2010, because in contrast to the 2007 Madrid proposals, not only is the right of the people of Nagorno Karabakh to self-determination very vague, but in terms of removing the consequences of the conflict, Azerbaijan is at an advantage.
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The topic of national mobilization is urgent today. Of course, given our size – small territory, small population – and given Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s enormous capabilities and sophisticated machinery, we have always used all national and international resources albeit with varying intensity, scope, depth and effectiveness, but nevertheless we have used them.
Today, the changing circumstances around us, and the new challenges emerging before us, make the need for this kind of new mobilization more timely and necessary. Let me cite four major reasons for this kind of mobilization at this time.
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It is a difficult time. What should have been an act of public courage is instead being viewed as an expedient political maneuver.
Most of those arrested and charged with involvement in the public events on and around March 1 and the violence which followed have been released. This would have been welcome, had it taken place in April last year, immediately upon the President’s inauguration. It did not. President Sargsyan took no such step.
Such a step would have been welcome anytime during this difficult, polarized, tense year. It did not happen. President Sargsyan did not resort to declaring amnesty until ‘the public urged him to do so.’ This pretense at public responsiveness came days after a disputed mayoral election, and days before another Council of Europe hearing on Armenia’s democratization processes.
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The first of June is observed as International Children’s Day in many parts of the world. Armenia, too, celebrates its young people and minor citizens on that day, when the public is reminded of its responsibility to protect the rights of children.
This year, Children’s Day fell on the day after the first-ever election for a Yerevan City Council. The run-up to the elections and the voting itself were unfortunately replete with the chronic issues of lack of transparency and voter confidence.
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Fifteen years of the longest self-maintained ceasefire in the world offers an unusual opportunity to assess what has happened over this decade and a half and to consider what comes next.
There are two fundamental issues to consider. The first question is whether Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh (and in Armenia) are more secure today than we were when the war stopped. The second issue is what will happen in this no-peace, no-war situation?
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This is my first public appearance since I left the office of foreign minister.
As I was gathering my thoughts about what to say, I realized that we've come a long long way these 17 years.
If I was still in office, I would tell you about Armenia's successes and challenges. Today, as a private citizen, I am going to do the same. But the reason I wanted to be a private citizen, is to be more outspoken about and to work for all that still needs to be done. I believe that my responsibility, our responsibility together, to Armenia and its future is the same whether one is in government or not.
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