YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–According to an earlier report–the Karabakh Committee of the "Helsinki Initiative -92" made a statement qualifying the decision by the Open Society Institute of Armenia to refuse to sponsor Committee representatives’ participation in the conference as a political statement having nothing to do with declared goals and principles of that organization.
In this respect–the Yerevan Office of the Open Society Institute disseminated Wednesday a statement which explained–"The Open Society Institute does not have a position regarding the political status of Nagorno-Karabakh. OSI is part of a network of autonomous non-profit foundations supported by the philanthropist George Soros and located throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. These foundations share the common mission of supporting the development of open society".
It is noted in the statement that OSI is establishing a branch office in Armenia which is laying the groundwork for the opening of an autonomous nonprofit foundation in Armenia.
"Once such a foundation has been established–it will be the responsibility of the board of directors of the foundation to determine all of its policies–including a policy with respect to finding grantees from Nagorno-Karabakh. In the interim the Open Society Institute will accept proposals from Nagorno-Karabakh at any foundation in the network. These proposals will be forwarded to the Open Society Institute-Budapest where they will be reviewed by the OSI Budapest Board," concluded the statement.
