Armenia Refuses To Grant Visas To Turkish Electoral Observers Without Excuse, Turkish M.F.A.

ANKARA - "Armenia refused to grant visas to Turkish observers who were assigned by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) at the parliamentary election on May 12th in Armenia," Levent Bilman, Spokesman of Turkish Foreign Ministry, told reporters on Monday.
Bilman said that the OSCE observers stated that Armenian authorities would not grant visas to the the short term observer delegation of 8 Turks (assigned by the OSCE under the Election Observation Mission) on May 6th --hours before its departure for Yerevan-- for the Parliamentary elections on May 12th. Bilman indicated that OSCE, upon this development, cancelled the trip.
Bilman emphasized that this attitude of Armenia --which is far from constructive dialogue-- can cause consequences that would not serve Armenia`s expectations for enhancing its relations with neighbours and integration with the international community.
Bilman called on all countries and international organizations --which attach importance to democratic improvement of Armenia as well as development of good relations with neighbours and regional peace-- to draw necessary conclusions from this decision of Armenia.
On the other hand, Christian Strohal, the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), said he was concerned about visa problems that some official election observers face when entering Armenia ahead of the May 12th parliamentary elections.
"An invitation to observe elections is an invitation to all OSCE participating states, and is issued in order to ensure equal treatment and strengthen the diversity of observation," said Strohal.
"Preventing some observers from participating contradicts the principles of transparency and objectivity which are an indispensable aspect of democratic elections," he noted.
According to a release at OSCE`s web-site, Armenian authorities informed the ODIHR that they would not issue visas to eight observers, all of them of Turkish nationality, who were expected to arrive in the country today.
The ODIHR Director stressed that this refusal came unexpectedly and no official reason was given as to why the observers could not enter the country.