Today at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) the draft resolution on the activity of the democratic institutions in Armenia will be put to vote. The resolution offers the Armenian government to take concrete steps to overcome the political crisis in the country. The unwillingness of conducting improvements may suspend voting rights of Armenia in the PACE.
Co-rapporteurs of the resolution John Prescott ensured that he will give answers to many questions during today’s discussion. In his interview to the A1+ he said that unfortunately the picture is not very clear because the sides are blaming each other and justifying themselves. Despite that he said that the report will elucidate all the questions. “This lack of public confidence was the basis for the peaceful protests that ensued after the announcement of the preliminary results, initially tolerated by the authorities,” he said. “The RA Constitutional Court made a verdict that the elections results were not falsified. I don’t have the right to say it not so,” he said, “the tragic thing is the event of March 1. That gives Armenia serious concerns.” According to Prescott Armenia may revise its legislation as told by the Armenian officials; however the important thing is the credibility of Armenia. “The dialog would be very important for Armenia. In democratic countries the opposition raises the issues in the Parliament and the Armenian opposition went out on the street as it didn’t have an opportunity like that,” he emphasized by adding that today’s session will advert to it. According to the Radio Liberty the resolution offers the Armenian government to take concrete steps to overcome the political crisis in the country. “Armenia should urgently undertake reforms of the political system and of the electoral process, guarantee the independence of the judiciary, the public media and freedom of assembly, and stop the harassment of opposition media outlets, arbitrary arrests and politically motivated detentions," reads the resolution. The parliamentarians listed a number of conditions for such a dialogue to start, notably the immediate opening of an independent inquiry into the events of 1 March (which resulted in 10 people killed and 200 injured), the urgent release of the persons detained on seemingly artificial and politically motivated charges and the revocation of the amendments recently adopted by the National Assembly to the Law on conducting meetings, assemblies, rallies and demonstrations, with immediate effect. Unless these conditions are met and an open dialogue on the reforms mentioned is seriously engaged, “the credibility of Armenia as a member of the Council of Europe is put into doubt”, the parliamentarians said. “The Assembly should therefore consider the possibility of suspending the voting rights of the Armenian delegation to the Assembly at the opening of its June 2008 part-session, if no considerable progress has been made on these requirements by then”, the resolution concludes, PACE communication unit reports. Member of the Armenian delegation Armen Rustamyan explained to the Liberty report what consequences the suspension of voting may have. “We will not have the right to vote here, will not have the right to make speeches. We can only have consultative meetings at the commission sessions, working group meetings, etc.” “I hope we will be able to avoid this decision by the June session and maintain our voting right,” Rustamyan said. As he informed the PACE delegates 10 people died and over 100 were detained during March 1 tragic event. In fact, Levon Ter-Petrossian was under house arrest. Afterwards state of emergency was declared and freedom of speech was limited. “In fact, any instance of state of emergency is a violation of human rights”, said John Prescott.
P.S. Yesterday during the session of the PACE of the faction of the European People’s Party – Christian Democrats the resolution on the functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia was discussed. The head of the faction, Belgian Parliamentarian Lui Van den Brandt reprehended the Azerbaijani delegate by telling him not to turn into a debate of Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. According to the A1+ the Azerbaijani delegate mentioned the NKR conflict, the state of Azerbaijani refugees, etc.