Yesterday the parliament partially adopted the changes to the law on rallies, assemblies and demonstrations and then turned to another requirement of the PACE resolution.
During yesterday’s session the parliamentarians discussed the issue of establishing an ad hoc commission in charge of discussing the reasons of the March 1 events, which has been initiated by Viktor Dallakyan and representatives of the four coalition powers in the parliament. According to the draft decision, the commission shall have 11 members (two members from each faction and one independent MP). There are rumors that the coalition powers have already decided who those members are. Thus, the rumors say that the RPA will nominate Samvel Nikoyan and Hermine Naghdalyan in that commission. Also, they say that Samvel Nikoyan will be the head of that commission. The Prosperous Armenia will nominate Naira Zohrabyan and Aram Safaryan. The ARF will nominate Lilit Galstyan and Artyusha Shahbazyan, the Heritage – Armen Martirosyan and Zaruhi Postanjyan. However, the Heritage party does not agree with such distribution in the commission and offers the places fifty-fifty in order to have balance in the commission to have the trust of the people, thus it is suggesting to give 5 places to the governmental coalition and five places to the opposition, and one place to an independent MP. There are rumors saying that this independent MP to be included in the commission is Viktor Dallakyan. Yesterday the latter presented the bill initiated by him together with the head of the standing commission of state and legal affairs Davit Harutyunyan and said that he didn’t want to become a member of the commission. Both Dallakyan and Harutyunyan said that there were against the suggestion to share the places in the commission 50-50. The members of Heritage party had other suggestion concerning not only the formation of the commission, but also the procedures and duties to be taken on by that commission. Zaruhi Postanjyan asked whether MP Myasnik Malkhasyan, Sasun Mikayelyan and Hakob Hakobyan, who had been arrested, become members of that commission as well. In answer Viktor Dallakyan said that he understood the real meaning of the question because he had studied well at school. Davit Harutyunyan said that if those MPs who had been deprived of their personal immunity right became members of that commission they would not get anything instead because the accusations against them and arrest order would still stay in force. Zaruhi Postanjyan also asked what the initiators of the bill thought about the idea of broadcasting the works of that commission on TV. In a word, the MP wants the society to keep “its hand on the vein”. She also suggested to invite the former responsible officials to the works of the commission as well. “For example, let’s kindly ask the former police head Hayk Harutyunyan to participate in the works of the commission,” said Z.Postanjyan. Viktor Dallakyan said that not only the police chief should be invited, but also former president Robert Kocharyan and the head of his security services Grigori Sarkisyan. Davit Harutyunyan did not answer the question concerning broadcasting the works of the commission on TV but said that he was against making a show. Another MP from Heritage faction, Vardan Khachatryan finds that the non-parliamentary opposition should be represented in the commission too. “I mean the participants of the people’s movement,” he said. V. Khachatryan thinks that in terms of forming the commission the parties can come to an agreement and find compromises. Of course, all coalition powers and independent MP Viktor Dallakyan were against all suggestions proposed by Heritage party. They also criticized the opposition for “privatizing” the credit to speak about the events of March 1. In answer to the Heritage Viktor Dallakyan said that instead of speaking they could initiate that suggestion themselves. “This is not a sports rival and the ones who manage to propose such thing first are not always the winners. We understand it very well that it depends on the parliamentary majority,” said Heritage member Armen Martirosyan and said that if the mentioned bill were presented by them, it might not get the support of the parliamentary majority. Khachatryan says that the Heritage party will abstain during the vote on establishing a commission in charge of investigating the events of March 1. He says that if the works of the commission tend to cover the real reasons of the events of March 1, they will give up and will not participate in their works because they cannot support them keep the statehood in the cover of fraudulence.
The bill on establishing an ad hoc commission in charge of investigating the events of March 1 will be put for voting in the parliament today. It is expected that the parliamentarians will be happy to discuss that issue as any issues connected with the PACE resolution. By the way, the initiators of the bill expect that the commission will come up with a report in October. In a word, in the fall session the parliament adopted three bills allegedly targeted at fulfillment of the requirements of the PACE resolution. On Monday the parliament adopted the bill on enlarging the scope of the opposition’s rights, yesterday the amendment to the law on rallies and demonstrations, and today it will adopt the bill on establishing a commission in charge of investigating the events of March 1 and will go on vacation. They will have a good rest if the summer session of the PACE does not disturb that “well-earned vacation”.