At the June 20 rally the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that among the requirements of the PACE resolution 1609 the priority for him is the issue of political prisoners.
“If before the PACE session Serzh Sargsyan releases all the political prisoners of Armenia without exception I agree to request the PACE not to apply the sanctions against Armenia, which it threatened to do in the event if Armenia doesn’t comply with the requirements,” mentioned Ter-Petrosyan in his speech. He even remotely addressed to Sargsyan by asking, “isn’t it possible to do this now with one phone call? We said that after the release we are willing to start a dialog with the government.” But what do other political forces think about starting a dialog with the opposition and the suggestion of Ter-Petrosyan. “I think that the filed cases must be completed via a natural court trial but not one call. The court trial must proceed in a way to ensure that the innocent ones are released and the culprits are punished. The innocent ones may later apply to the court for moral grievances. I think Ter-Petrosyan will benefit more if the innocent ones are released via a court trial then expect the favor from the government to release them with one phone call. Otherwise we will stop to be called a legal state. We have the courage to confess that the ghost of the European Court is roaming around and must be more emphasized in all court trials. Any case, which is being discussed in Strasbourg related to Armenia, hits the image of the country and demonstrates the issues of our judicial system,” says a member of the Republican parliamentary faction Armen Ashotyan. “In my opinion there shouldn’t be any pre-conditions. There should just be dialog, as a result of which new options will originate. The dialog brings to the solution of issues. In my opinion it will just be right to start dialog,” mentioned member of the Legal State faction Hovhannes Margaryan as a response to Ter-Petrosyan’s suggestion. Member of the Prosperous Armenia faction Aram Safaryan said that he wouldn’t like to comment on Ter-Petrosyan’s speech. And we didn’t succeed in receiving any comments from the representatives of the fourth member party of the coalition – the Armenian Revolutionary Federation. Secretary of the faction Artyusha Shahbazyan refused to express any opinion about Ter-Petrosyan’s speech. At the June 20 rally Ter-Petrosyan also spoke about the steps of the government since the post-electoral developments. “What has he done during these three months? In my opinion what he did was replacement. He offered other positions to the loyalists of Kocharyan. None of the appointments was the wish of the people and none of them is a loyalist…” said Ter-Petrosyan. Of course the coalition partners don’t agree with this opinion of the first president. They claim that during the last months Sargsyan is making reforms. And Ashotyan has even divided Ter-Petrosyan’s speech into two parts – deep political and just for the people. “I think that this statement was a populist one, made for the people, for the “ears for the masses.” Yes, if we don’t see the result of the reforms we cannot be objective to the reforms implemented in our country. I am sure that during Sargsyan’s presidency we will have a developed and progressive Armenia. During 100 days it is impossible to register serious results. I am sure that people already see the positive reforms. They are just afraid that this process won’t be long lasting,” said Ashotyan. “During this short period of time we can already witness that the President has made certain positive steps. The sectors include the police, tax and customs bodies. Of course it is impossible to fully eradicate the negative things. Tremendous work has been undertaken in the earthquake zone,” thinks Hovhannes Margaryan from the Legal State. The representatives of governmental parties have numerously mentioned that the requirements of the resolution 1609 coordinate with the coalition agreement. The rapporteurs, Britain’s former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and French parliamentarian Georges Colombier, visited Yerevan last week to assess government steps stemming from the PACE resolution. Holovaty described those steps as “insufficient” in a letter to Lluis Maria de Puig, the PACE president, late last week. The resolution in question demanded that the Armenian authorities release all opposition members arrested on “seemingly artificial and politically motivated charges” following last February’s disputed presidential election. It also called for the scrapping of serious restrictions on freedom of assembly and the launch of an independent inquiry into the deadly post-election clashes between opposition protesters and security forces. The PACE warned that failure to take these measures could lead to the suspension of the voting rights of its four Armenian members. The administration of the President says it is doing its best to comply with the resolution. It points, in particular, to its decisions to ease the de facto ban on opposition rallies and to form an ad hoc parliament commission tasked with investigating the March 1 violence in Yerevan. During that period the NA adopted the law on rallies, demonstrations, meetings, etc. If the PACE finds the steps undertaken in the direction of the PACE requirements insufficient it means that they estimate insufficient the conduct of the coalition agreement. “I think that first the spokesmen should make presentations at the full session of the Council of Europe and the Council itself should determine whether the requirements were met or not. During my meeting with Colombier last week I felt that he found the recent reforms quite positive. I cannot say why they estimated that process negatively. Last week we met with the representatives of the Venice Commission. They specifically had a positive opinion about the laws on radio and television. For me this approach was quite surprising,” said Margaryan. “As of the law amendments I’d say that all the necessary things were done. Maybe they would wish that the commission was established longer ago and certain things had already been done. Of course they required that we fully cancel the amended the law on rallies but it was impossible. All we could do is just revise it. The Venice Commission also had a positive opinion about the revised version. We are saying that it is our law and we will do what we think is more expedient for our state,” added secretary of the Republican faction Samvel Nikoyan. Almost all of them think that the PACE will prolong the terms of conducting the PACE requirements and will not apply sanctions, such as depriving Armenia of the voting right.