1. OSCE/ODIHR NEEDS ASSESSMENT MISSION REPORT for Armenia's Parliamentary Elections of may 12, 2007 (pdf)

2. Minister Oskanian's response letter (see below)

The Minister said to Mr. Strohal:

We have received the Needs Assessment Mission Report on the upcoming Parliamentary Elections and thank you for your efforts. As you know it is the intention of the Government of the Republic of Armenia to secure and guarantee all the necessary conditions for the conduct of free and fair elections. We hope that the international observers, including those in the OSCE/ODIHR mission, will be able to witness and report on major progress in terms of the conduct of the electoral process.

When you were in Yerevan, we discussed the role of the observation mission and agreed on the importance of their role as observers who observe, and cite only that which they have seen with their own eyes, or on reliable data, sources of which are precise, transparent and verifiable.

We therefore were surprised to see in the needs assessment report numerous unfounded suppositions based on allegations made by some political figures or assumptions and guesses by the members of the team, themselves. Attached are several such excerpts and our comments and responses.

Unfortunately, this kind of content results in a prejudicial report which creates, in advance, an expectation of "violations to come" among those who will be monitoring Armenia's parliamentary elections.

It is our expectation that the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission shall function in an unbiased and balanced manner. Allegations or assumptions should not form the basis for either assessing the needs or interpreting observations. We hope you might find these observations helpful and can perhaps incorporate these points as amendments to the NAM report. We particularly ask that such observations be taken into consideration in preparing additional documents.

Sincerely,

Vartan Oskanian