YEREVAN. - Supreme Council (SC) of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun hosted U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills and Deputy Chief of the Embassy’s Political and Economic Section, Ruben Harutunian, Tuesday.  

They met wit the ARF-D Bureau political representative Armen Rustamyan, ARF-D SC representative Aghvan Vardanyan and ARF Bureau member Kiro Manoyan.

At the meeting, Ambassador Mills was briefed on the convocation of the 20th Supreme Council of ARF and the new Supreme Body elected by the Supreme Council.

“The initiative of the meeting was ours, and when this proposal was submitted to the U.S. Embassy, the military actions along the Karabakh-Azerbaijani Line of Contact hadn’t started yet. Thus, those military actions changed the meeting agenda. Detailed reference was made to the Karabakh issue and the recent developments.  We expressed our expectations from the international community and Minsk Group co-chairing countries, noting the need for calling spade a spade. It’s necessary to install mechanisms for controlling the ceasefire and take steps towards this,” Kiro Manoyan said. 

During the meeting, ARF-D representatives also touched on the negative role of Turkey in the current situation and possible developments with the involvement of Turkey. Apart from this, ARF-Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) political cooperation agreement, ARF’s stance on new Electoral Code and reforms in electoral system, as well as possibilities of the U.S. support to those amendments were discussed. 

Ambassador Mills noted that the current priority of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs is the enhancement of the ceasefire agreement signed in 1994 and reconfirmed in 2016, as well as the steps taken towards mutual confidence and return of the sides to the negotiation table.

Referring to the reforms in the electoral system of Armenia, Mills stressed that the United States has and will continue to support the enhancement of democracy in the country, including the formation of a system which would inspire confidence to the Armenian people. The ambassador also noted that the Armenian authorities, as well as opposition forces and civil society have much to do here.

The sides agreed to hold such meetings more frequently.