Embassy News
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Tina S. Kaidanow visits Armenia
Transcript of DAS Kaidanow's Interview to Armenian Public TV
Photo Gallery: DAS Kaidanow's Visit to Armenia
Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Tina S. Kaidanow traveled to Armenia October 19-21. Ambassador Kaidanow held discussions with the President, the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Defense Minister, the Speaker of Parliament, and opposition representatives. She also met with representatives of civil society, including media representatives and experts on regional cooperation.
Deputy Assistant Secretary Kaidanow addressed a wide range of issues in her conversations, including U.S. government support for the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, as well as ongoing USG programs to assist Armenia in the fields of economic development, human rights and democracy. She stressed the importance of democratization efforts for Armenia's future and urged the government to take steps that will demonstrate Armenia's commitment to democratic progress. She also noted that the U.S. government is providing a wide range of support for Armenia, including over $180 million in Millenium Challenge Corporation funds that will be disbursed by the conclusion of the program in 2010.
Following her trip to Armenia, Ms. Kaidanow will visit Georgia and Azerbaijan.
Transcript of DAS Kaidanow's Interview to Armenian Public TV
U.S. Embassy
Information Resource Center 4:30-4:45 p.m.
Public Television – Interviewer Artur Grigorian
Deputy Assistant Secretary Tina S. Kaidanow
AG: Ambassador, welcome to Armenia, and my first question. What does the U.S. Government want to stress by appointing a diplomat with your background as the responsible person for our region?
TSK: Well first of all, let me say thank you for conducting this interview. I'm glad to have the chance to do it. And also I'm very, very happy to be here in Armenia. It's my first visit here and it's been a really, really good visit. I've spent a day and a half, roughly, here and I've met with a variety of officials. I've seen the President. I've seen the Foreign Minister. I've seen the Prime Minister. I've seen some representatives of civil society. I've seen a number of opposition representatives. And it's been a very full and a very good, significant trip. And we discussed a whole range of issues that we can talk about a little bit more if you like, but I expressed a real support for Armenia, our desire to have a full bilateral relationship between the United States Government and Armenia. I expressed my support obviously for the Turkey-Armenia normalization process that's now going on. And we discussed a whole range of other things as well, including importantly the democratization process here in Armenia and the need to move forward on democratic efforts. As I said, it was a very good series of meetings. And with respect to your question specifically, my previous job was my previous job and this job is a quite different set of issues. And there's really very little relation actually between what I did before and what I am doing now. U.S. policy in this region is very, very specific and has been expressed many times and I expressed it again to all of my interlocutors here over the last couple of days.
AG: And does this, your background, have any connection to do with the conflicts in our region?
TSK: No. No. What we've said many, many times specific to my previous job and the issues I was dealing with before is that they were specific to Kosovo because Kosovo is, unfortunately, had a history that was related to the fall of the former Yugoslavia and those issues are extremely specific and are not, are not related in any way to other conflicts elsewhere in the world or in this region.
AG: Okay. Let's discuss about our bilateral relations. Can you please describe the model of the relations that will satisfy both Armenia and the United States?
TSK: In terms of our bilateral relationship, you mean?
AG: Yes.
TSK: Yeah. Well, I think again we hope very much that we can have a range of supportive relations across a whole, a whole field of different issues. When I was here over the last couple of days, we talked about political issues including the ones that I just mentioned. We talked a bit about economic development and some of the support that the United States is giving to Armenia. We have a whole range of assistance programs that we have given and we are continuing to provide to Armenia, including I must say over $180 million dollars that we're providing through the Millennium Challenge Corporation, which is primarily going to training in agricultural issues, in poverty reduction. These are the kinds of things we want to work on together with Armenians and our hope is that we can find even more ways to cooperate over the next few years.
AG: Your country is directly involved in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict. Can you confirm or refute the hypothesis that as a final result of the settlement, the map of the region might be changed?
TSK: I think first of all, you are correct in saying that we have played a very active role together with the other two Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group process. We think it is a very important process. We believe that a resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue is essential for regional stability. And it's in the same way, as you know, that all of our efforts have been to date. We really want to see peace and stability and prosperity in the region as a whole. I don't want to comment too much on the specifics of the actual negotiations. The Co-Chairs were just recently in the region. I hope that they will be here soon, again. And I think that they have seen, again, some positive dynamics in the discussions and our hope is that that will continue.
AG: One of the pre-election mottos of the U.S. President is making changes and we see some steps taken in that direction in the world. I wonder if the change of Armenia-Turkey segment fully satisfied President Obama and if he will mind if the issue of the recognition of the "Armenian Genocide" in Turkey appears in the agenda of the US Congress.
TSK: Well, first of all, I think you are correct in saying that President Obama came into office with a desire to improve the situation in many parts of the world and he very much wants to see again peace, prosperity, and stability throughout the Caucasus. And the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey, I think, is very much a part of that agenda. That's why we have been so supportive of the process and we will continue to support the process. Our feeling very strongly is that this has many benefits both for Turkey and for Armenia. Specific to the President's statement of last April, I think he spoke for himself. I think he said precisely what he wanted to say. I can't predict what he will do next April, but again, I think he was very clear in expressing the hope that Turkey and Armenia can explore their own relations fully through this process and improve things in such a way, again, that it will benefit all of the people of the region.
AG: Thank you Ambassador. Thank you very much.
TSK: Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you.