US embassy cable - 04YEREVAN2525

C O N F I D E N T I A L YEREVAN 002525 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE/EUR FOR DAS LAURA KENNEDY 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/23/2014 
TAGS: PREL, MARR, MOPS, AM, IZ 
SUBJECT:  Armenian Iraq Contingent: Speaker of 
Parliament Asks Our Help 
 
Ref:  Yerevan 2517 
 
Classified by Amb. John Evans, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C ) Over lunch November 23, Armenian National 
Assembly speaker Artur Baghdasarian shared with 
Ambassador the likely time-line for parliamentary 
consideration of the deployment of Armenia's non- 
combatant contingent to the Iraq Coalition and asked our 
assistance in mustering arguments to be deployed in the 
expected debate. 
 
2. (C ) The Speaker said the Constitutional Court was 
expected to transmit the case for action to the National 
Assembly on November 30.   He confirmed that 
technically, the issue before the Court and prospectively 
before the National Assembly would be the narrow one of 
the bilateral Armenian-Polish memorandum signed during 
President Kocharian's September visit to Warsaw.   He said 
the National Assembly was expected to take up the issue at 
its December 5-7 session. 
 
3.  C) In this connection, the Speaker noted that the 
National Assembly had been receiving so many inquiries 
about the proposed deployment that it had had to set up a 
hot line to deal with them.   Although the issue had 
purposely been narrowly defined, once it reached the 
National Assembly, the scope of the discussion would be 
difficult to control.  The Defense Minister would make the 
Government's case for the deployment, but the Speaker 
anticipated that he would bear the brunt of the hostile 
debate, which could come from the opposition or even from 
certain quarters within the parliamentary coalition.  He 
asked the Ambassador if he could provide whatever up-to- 
date supporting materials might be available. 
 
4.  ( C ) Action request:  Embassy requests guidance as to 
what materials, in addition to the excellent fact sheets 
available through State and CENTCOM websites, might 
best assist the Speaker (and the Defense Minister, who has 
not asked, but may) in making the case for the Armenian 
non-combatant deployment.   Facts and figures 
demonstrating what other comparable countries are 
contributing  specially neighboring Georgia and 
Azerbaijan, as well as Central Asian and East European 
states  ould serve this purpose best.   We do not expect 
anyone to generate new materials, but would appreciate any 
guidance as to what is the best material currently available. 
EVANS