Ex-FM says criminal case against Civilitas Foundation politically motivated

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former Foreign Minister of Armenia and former head of Civilitas Foundation Vartan Oskanian has issued a statement to comment on his summons to National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia to offer testimony in relation to a criminal case regarding money laundering.

The statement runs as follows:

“From the start, the Civilitas Foundation has been transparent, and operated in accordance with the spirit and the letter of Armenian law. Since its first days in 2008, the Civilitas Foundation's programs have been supported by the governments of the Netherlands and Poland, the foreign ministries of Norway and Germany, the international development organizations of Switzerland and the UK, the US Embassy in Yerevan, the OSCE Yerevan Office, as well as other well-known organizations, corporations and individuals.

This has been public information. The government agencies of the Republic of Armenia clearly could not have been ignorant about these relationships.

I find it strange and astonishing therefore that my work and the work of Civilitas can in any way be linked to money laundering or illegally acquired funds. Even more astonishing is that such a question is being raised at a time when I have entered politics.

It is obvious to me that the criminal case that has been opened is politically motivated.”