January 27 is going to be extremely crucial for Armenia because on that day in the morning the PACE session will take place to discuss the status of 1609 and 1620 resolutions, which Armenia was supposed to abide with. Judging from the statements of the PACE officials, who were dealing with the Armenian issue, it’s not hard to guess that Armenia will enjoy its voting right at the PACE for the last time on January 27. Prior to that tonight Armenia will host PACE co-rapporteurs John Prescott, Jorge Columbier and commission secretary Bas Klein in order to have a final picture of the status of the conduct of the requirements of the mentioned resolutions. They will meet with RA President Serzh Sargsyan, NA chairman Hovik Abrahamyan, the chairman of the commission on the investigation of March 1 events Samvel Nikoyan, members of the fact-finding commission, prosecutor-general Aghvan Hovsepyan and Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan. The guests will discuss the mentioned issue with the chairman of the Armenian delegation at PACE Davit Harutyunyan at dinner. It’s not yet known whether the co-rapporteurs will meet the opposition representatives because they expect steps on part of the government and not the opposition. Therefore, they may not feel the need of meeting the opposition representatives this time. The members of the Armenian delegation of the PACE covertly confess that the situation of Armenia is so serious that it would be impossible to improve it in such a short period. Even the government representatives of the delegation confess that it was worth thinking of the possible negative consequences months ago and not now. The government should have taken care of this long ago when the PACE representatives were visiting Armenia and petitioning it to release the prisoners. As a result the PACE is seriously disposed to Armenia this time. The problem is that the PACE made a session and decided to hear the issue of Armenia on the monitoring of January 27 instead of the planned session to take place on January 28 evening. The chairman of the Armenian delegation in the PACE Davit Harutyunyan, who only yesterday returned from Barcelona (he was participating in the PACE Bureau session), refused to comment on the possible decision of the PACE by reasoning that he doesn’t have anything to add. As other members of the delegation would say Harutyunyan appeared in the hardest period of his career. The thing is that Serzh Sargsyan assigned Harutyunyan to do his best to persuade the Europeans that the prisoners were jailed not because of their views but because of criminal deeds on March 1. Moreover, Harutyunyan was asked to resolve this issue alone without disturbing the government. But as it’s known Harutyunyan didn’t quite succeed in his assignment and the Europeans challenge him to persuade the president to release the prisoners. This time Harutyunyan once again promised to deliver their message to the Armenian president. The government elite thinks that Harutyunyan failed in his mission not because he wasn’t able to but because he didn’t wish to. The thing is that in the opinion of many of the government representatives Harutyunyan as well as the major members of the delegation Armen Rustamyan and Avet Adonts don’t wish to try too hard to persuade the Europeans because deep in their heart they know that the prisoners are charged for their political views. Besides that there is information that Harutyunyan doesn’t wish to deteriorate his relations with the Europeans because he is planning to submit a job in one of the European structures in the near future. During the recent days the government, by realizing that everything is lost, has started to initiate certain steps. Last week a meeting took place and certain officials were assigned to come up with concrete recommendations. The chairman of the Legal State and president of the National Security Council Artur Baghdasaryan has promised that he will be able to “deal” with certain European officials due to his good ties with them. It means he may try to “bribe” them to make positive statements during the session. The Chairman of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan sent a letter to the chairmen of PACE-member parliaments. In the letter sent two weeks ago, Chairman of the National Assembly of Armenia particularly asked for support during the upcoming developments related to the issue of Armenia and the discussions to take place in January. Let us recall that the Armenian delegation faces the danger of losing voting rights in the PACE. “The proposed sanction is overstated, inconsistent and does not correspond to the former working style of the assembly, including that of the other delegations of our region. The sanction will serve as a case of applying double standards and will contradict our collective efforts aimed at promoting cooperation and dialogue in the framework of the Council of Europe and the Assembly,” noted the NA Chairman promising that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, as well as the Armenian delegation in the PACE are always ready to provide additional information or clarifications in order to prepare for the mentioned assembly. However, according to the opinion of the members of the Armenian delegation in the PACE all the attempts of Abrahamyan are subject to failure because the opposition has on the other hand sent so many counter arguments to the Europeans that they won’t change their decision any more. Yesterday we asked the Ombudsman of Armenia Armen Harutyunyan what arguments he was going to bring up during the January 15 meeting with Prescott and Columbier in order to persuade them not to deprive Armenia of its voting right. As a response he said, “As an Ombudsman I don’t have an objective like that. I am going to neither lobby for the sanction nor vice versa. Let the government think of that. My objective is to present the realistic and objective situation. It would be better if the government representatives were in charge of lobbying for Armenia.” To the question whether he knows whether the government has a decent argument to persuade the Europeans not to deprive Armenia of its voting right Harutyunyan said, “To be frank, I don’t know what arguments the government has prepared to save the situation, therefore I can’t answer your question,” he said. Moreover, according to Harutyunyan it is quite realistic that by the end of January Armenia may be deprived of its voting right. The chairman of the ad hoc commission on the investigation of March 1 events Samvel Nikoyan is also not going to persuade the co-rapporteurs not to deprive Armenia of its voting right in the PACE. During the interview to us he said that during the meeting he will only be presenting the work done by his ad hoc. “It is not my objective to convince them of anything. I am the chairman of the ad hoc and they are the ones, who initiated the meeting with me. So I will speak with them on the issues of their interest,” said Nikoyan by adding that every person must do his/her own job and that their task is not to persuade the co-rapporteurs. “I everyone worked in the right manner perhaps such issues wouldn’t be risen,” said Nikoyan perhaps by hinting at the Armenian delegation members in the PACE. To the question whether the government doesn’t have the task to convince the Europeans not to deprive Armenia of its voting right, Nikoyan said, “Absolutely not. The government doesn’t have an objective like that. In fact the PACE is saying either change or don’t vote. If the head of the Armenian delegation Davit Harutyunyan doesn’t visit Europe several times to vote no national disaster will occur.”
