The PACE launched the summer session yesterday. Before the summer session the PACE held a session of the Monitoring Commission and discussed Armenia’s issue. Armenia’s issue will be discussed at the PACE plenary session on June 24. According to Arman Grigoryan, the ANC’s representative to the PACE, and member of Heritage party Zaruhi Postanjyan, the PACE is not going to apply any sanctions on Armenia.
During the session co-rapporteurs John Prescott and George Colombier presented the results of their visit to Armenia on June 15-17. The new draft report presented by the co-rapporteurs will be developed for discussion during the upcoming plenary session. According to Davit Harutyunyan, the head of Armenia’s delegation to the PACE, the general evaluation of the co-rapporteurs during the Monitoring session was positive. “However Armenia will still be subject to monitoring,” said Davit Harutyunyan following the session. Armen Rustamyan, member of the delegation and ARF representative, says that the situation drastically changed in the Monitoring session following the announcement about the expected amnesty. He says that the amnesty has changed the logic of the document. He also says that there are serious questions in the PACE concerning the fact-finding group looking into the events of March 1. “These questions are still pending and if we fail to recover the fact-finding group, this responsibility will be passed on to the relative NA ad hoc,” said Rustamyan and added that they would continue the reforms concerning the other issues. ANC delegate Arman Grigoryan participated in the Monitoring session as well and said the following to the A1+ reporter following the session, “There can be no word concerning sanctions this time. However neither there should be a word concerning taking Armenia out of the monitoring control.” He says that before the session together with heritage representative Zatruhi Postanjyan he made a presentation on the current situation in Armenia, the issue of amnesty and the process of fulfillment of the resolutions on Armenia. Arman Grigoryan also touched upon the suspension of the fact-finding group in his speech too. He said that the Armenian government had torpedoed the fact-finding group, in answer to which John Prescott said that it was more like a failure on part of the experts in the fact-finding group because they were not able to give up their political ambitions and work independently. “He did not have the right to make such announcement because if they read the reports of the fact-finding group members he wouldn’t say such thing. He has not seen the report,” said Zaruhi Postanjyan after the Monitoring session in answer to Prescott’s observation. The ANC’s representative says that the co-rapporteur did not want to justify anyone but was trying to say that it was not torpedoed on purpose. By the way, the ANC’s representative has asked the PACE to establish a new fact-finding group consisting of international independent experts who will be trustable, or involve international experts in the fact-finding group to act as arbiters. Concerning the amnesty he said that the amnesty bill had complicated the issue of releasing the other political prisoners and limited the possibility of using the tools to set the other political prisoners free as well. By the way, Davit Harutyunyan says that the draft adopted by the Monitoring commission on Thursday emphasizes the essence of making amendments to the Electoral Code. “Definitely there will be amendments to the mechanisms of raising the public trust, which will exclude the doubts and will serve as preventive measures,” he said.