VZCZCXRO9163
RR RUEHDBU RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHYE #0332/01 0781436
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191436Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY YEREVAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5129
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP WASHDC 0028
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 0287
RUEHPS/USOFFICE PRISTINA 0015

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 YEREVAN 000332 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/CARC, EUR/PPD; USNATO FOR IAN KELLY 
 
E.O. 12958; N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KPAO NATO AM
 
SUBJECT: ARMENIA CELEBRATES NATO WEEK (WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM ITS 
FRIENDS) 
 
 
YEREVAN 00000332  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
This cable is sensitive but unclassified. Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. (SBU) Embassy Yerevan provided key support to ensure that 
Armenia's first "NATO Week," held March 12-16, was a success.  The 
Week was launched with the NATO - Armenia Youth Educational Rally, 
featuring the departure of a NATO bus that traveled from one end of 
Armenia to the other giving presentations at seven university towns 
outside of Yerevan.  The week concluded with a sometimes emotional 
digital video conference (DVC) between Armenian peacekeeping troops 
in Kosovo and their family members in Armenia.  In between, there 
were numerous other events, including a roundtable hosted by the 
Embassy for NATO ambassadors with NATO Assistant Secretary General 
for Public Diplomacy Jean Fournet as the guest speaker.  The events 
received wide media coverage, especially the DVC.  If the publicity 
did not entirely banish the skepticism shown by many Armenians over 
joining NATO, it certainly went a long way toward ensuring that 
Armenian public is better informed about NATO's objectives, values 
and activities.  End summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
STUDENT TOUR AROUND THE COUNTRY PUBLICIZES NATO 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶2. (SBU) Charge d'Affaires Anthony Godfrey helped kick off "NATO 
Week" by speaking to a group of enthusiastic Armenian youth at a 
rally in Yerevan held by the Armenian Atlantic Association (AAA) as 
part of its NATO awareness campaign, which was funded largely 
through a Democracy Commission small grant.  Several young members 
of AAA then took off in a bus and, in the course of five days, 
traveled from one end of Armenia to another, speaking to university 
students in seven cities in the region.  The group ended "NATO Week" 
back in Yerevan for a concluding ceremony. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The response outside Yerevan was more NATO-skeptical than 
in Yerevan.  We attended the AAA-led discussion in Vanadzor, where 
the students at Dimitric University were quite skeptical about NATO 
and about the value of Armenia's international engagement generally. 
The students were suspicious of NATO's anti-Soviet past and the fact 
that Turkey is a leading member of the Alliance.  By the end of the 
discussion, the AAA discussion leader had made some--but far from 
complete--headway in persuading participants that Euro-Atlantic 
institutions offered value for Armenia.  This discussion was an 
important way for the students to hear a positive message regarding 
NATO's mission and core values. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
DVC CONNECTS ARMENIAN PEACEKEEPRS WITH THEIR FAMILIES 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶4. (U) The U.S. embassies in Yerevan and Pristina, together with the 
Armenian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, organized an 
extremely successful digital video conference that connected 23 
Armenian peacekeepers serving in Kosovo with their families in 
Armenia.  The soldiers, most of whom were away from home for the 
first time, were very excited to see their friends and families for 
the first time in four months.  At one point, when a soldier who 
formerly served in Kosovo was reconnected with his fellow 
peacekeepers, the soldiers and families all broke out into song. 
The video conference was opened by the U.S. Charge d'Affaires and FM 
Vartan Oskanian.  Oskanian, who was scheduled to leave after his 
opening remarks but chose to stay for the entire hour, made a point 
of thanking the USG for the DVC, calling it a "very precious gift." 
We would like to thank U.S. Office Pristina for the wonderful job 
they did arranging their side of the DVC. 
 
¶5. (U) The DVC not only connected Armenian soldiers with their 
families, but the emotional event was also viewed on television 
throughout the country.  Public TV, Armenia's most popular 
television station, MC'ed and recorded the event.  The station aired 
footage on their news program that evening, and broadcast a separate 
half-hour long segment on prime time the following evening.  In 
addition, Public TV compiled and copied DVDs with footage of the 
video conference, which the embassy delivered to a number of other 
local television stations, resulting in broad television coverage of 
the conference. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
ROUNDTABLE WITH AMBASSADORS FROM NATO COUNTRIES 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Embassy also organized a March 16 roundtable that 
 
YEREVAN 00000332  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
brought together NATO members' ambassadors to Armenia.  During the 
meeting, NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Jean 
Fournet, who was in Armenia to mark NATO Week, sought the 
ambassadors' opinions on how to improve NATO's image in Armenia. 
Fournet told the ambassadors that public diplomacy in Armenia was 
especially important because it was part of the goal of explaining 
NATO's role to people in the countries surrounding Afghanistan, 
Kosovo, and Russia. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
CSTO SECRETARY GENERAL VISITS ARMENIA DURING NATO WEEK 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) The visit to Armenia of Collective Security Treaty 
Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha during NATO 
Week was an interesting confluence of events.  During his visit, 
Bordyuzha said that Armenia was an active member of the CSTO and saw 
its security as being protected within the CSTO framework. 
According to BBC's Caucasus Monitoring agency, comparing the CSTO 
with NATO, Bordyuzha said that NATO was created more than half a 
century ago and has developed a major public diplomacy effort.  The 
BBC reported that Bordyuzha said that the CSTO cannot conduct a 
similar public diplomacy campaign, but that it is making some 
efforts at increasing public awareness of the organization. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶8. (SBU) While a November, 2006, IRI poll showed that almost half 
(43 percent) of Armenians supported NATO membership for Armenia, it 
was clear from AAA's meetings with students that much work remains 
to be done.  Our experiences observing the AAA discussion groups 
suggest that NATO skepticism may remain more deeply entrenched 
outside of Yerevan--even among the upcoming generation of youth whom 
we might otherwise expect to be more NATO-friendly.  NATO Week in 
Armenia made concerted progress towards increasing public knowledge 
of NATO, and hopefully towards building support for the Alliance. 
The DVC, which reached Armenian television viewers throughout the 
country, appears to have been an especially effective means of 
helping to build support for Armenia's continued participation in 
international deployments and cooperation with NATO. 
 
GODFREY