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YEREVAN. – ​  The OSCE Office in Yerevan has been closely co-operating with the Armenian police for a number of years now, Andrey Sorokin, head of the OSCE Office in Yerevan, told Armenian News-NEWS.am commenting on the media reports that OSCE provides financial resources to police.

He said during that period a lot of projects have been implemented aimed at improving the work of the police and its reforming.

“As for the issue regarding the actual “financing”, I should emphasize that the OSCE is not a donor organization and as such we cannot and do not provide financial resources to any state institution. This, however, does not mean that we cannot organize specialized trainings, workshops, seminars for the staff, as well as, provide expert and technical support within the framework of the mandate of our Office, i.e. promotion of OSCE commitments in politico-military, economic and environmental and human dimensions of the OSCE.

Thus, within our long-term project on co-operation with the Armenian police, our activities were focused on promotion of democratic principles of policing, protection of human rights, encouraging better co-operation between the police and the public, including with the media, improving education system, etc. We have also on many occasions provided an opportunity to our Armenian partners from the police and other state structures, as well as, to civil society actors, to get acquainted with the international experience. Thus, for example, the OSCE invited an expert from the United Kingdom to help with the elaboration of the guidebook for police officers involved in community policing, and to train them on this issue. Likewise, the new police education system has been developed with the support of the OSCE based on the international experience and standards. We have many similar examples to list.

I would like to also note that the OSCE budget is formed through financial contributions by all 57 participating States, including Armenia, and is a subject of the consensus decision by all OSCE states, i.e. all countries should give their consent. Therefore, all our activities and expenditures are closely monitored by the OSCE participating States”.

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