The representatives of the parliamentary factions, besides the Heritage faction, believe that Armenia will not be deprived of its vote during the PACE session starting from June 23 because Armenia is fulfilling the requirements of the PACE resolution. Such announcement was made by representatives of governmental factions.
The ARF strongly believes it will not happen and the head of the ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisyan says that the coalition had defined all those provisions in its memo before the adoption of the resolution by the PACE. “When that resolution was being prepared the people who wrote that resolution had the coalition agreement at their hands, thus they tried to use this memo to make that document and introduce the provisions in it as their requirements or recommendations,” said Vahan Hovhannisyan. Vahan Hovhannisyan does not agree with the announcements on the part of the opposition saying that the government has not fulfilled any provisions of the PACE resolution. “Simply there are powers, for which any achievements seem to be dangerous,” he said and added that he thought that such powers would not be able to continue their activities after such achievements. The head of the ARF faction says that the content of the provisions in the coalition memo are both situational and prospective, thus they cannot be fulfilled in one day.
The chairman of Heritage party Raffi Hovhannisyan says that no serious achievements have been reached so far. “My approach to the overall steps so far is negative and I think that the reputation of our country will continue falling if the government does not undertake serious steps and reformations. As for what will happen there and whether we will lose our voting right or no, it is not so important now. The most important things are the rights of the Armenian citizens, the reputation of our nation and our international reputation, which is undermined now. I am not optimistic,” he said.
Answering to a question whether the opposition has met the requirement of the resolution to start a dialog with the government Raffi Hovhannisyan said the Heritage party had both prepared a draft of recommendations and done other things to start a dialog. “Even we have numerously asked our colleagues to meet face to face near a table of negotiations and commence a public dialog before the June session. We, being the only opposition power, have not only fulfilled the requirements of the PACE resolution, but also the requirements of the law and Constitutional right,” said the leader of the only opposition power represented in the parliament. In answer to a question how well Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his movement have done those requirements Raffi Hovhannisyan said that he could not say it. “It is very good that you want to help the dialog with such question. I have said for many times that the Heritage has done and is doing the requirements,” Hovhannisyan said. In answer to a question whether Ter-Petrosyan has met the requirements he said, “Yes, but I think there are shortcomings in all political fields of Armenia. You are asking one-point targeted question. The main powers who are responsible for this situation and also the requirements of the resolution are the authorities. Certainly the society and opposition are petitioned to do certain things as well, but the problem is that we have a big problem in our country and if each person stays in a corner and continues the monologue, there will not be any positive results. This is a problem that those groups like their limited team and this problem exists in all fields. I am saying that the republic of Armenia has not fulfilled its responsibility in terms of providing enforcement of the Constitutional rights in the country, thus there are still problems to solve in Strasbourg, which is the reason why delegations are coming here, meeting with us and then giving estimation to the current situation from there. It is not their fault, we are the ones who are guilty. I think that it is out of the interests of Armenia and also it is not true to blame anyone or just someone in all the failures. We can continue this way and everyone can express his/her understanding, but we should change our state model in favor of the citizens of the country,” said Raffi Hovhannisyan. The issue of establishing an ad hoc commission in the parliament in charge of investigating the events of March 1 will be discussed during the upcoming extraordinary session. This commission will include two MPs from each commission and one independent MP. The non-parliamentary powers will be involved in the work of this commission with an advisory status. Vahan Hovhannisyan assures that they will demand to invite the former police chief Hayk Harutyunyan and other officials to participate in the works of the commission and give explanations what happened that day. In answer to a question whether the former president will be invited as well Vahan Hovhannisyan said, “If you mean Levon Ter-Petrosyan, of course he will be invited.” He didn’t say anything about Robert Kocharyan.
By the way, Raffi Hovhannisyan says that the suggestion to make the power distribution proportion in the commission 50/50, which was proposed by PPA chairman Stepan Demirchyan, is “a fake approach”. According to the Heritage party, in order to make the results of the works of the mentioned commission trustable, in-depth and effective there must be three things. First, the commission should be formed based on the principles of fairness and equity. Second, the decision-making mechanism should be clarified in advance in order not to enter into a conflict of interest and appear in a deadlock in the future. Third, the parties should clarify the rights and powers of the commissions, which can provide good results and help to overcome the crisis. Raffi Hovhannisyan says that if these three principles are followed, the commission will be effective.
Head of LS faction Heghine Bisharyan says that the #1609 resolution is done “with a great progress.” As for the opposition representatives who are in cells now, she says that if there are people who think that politicians are punished only for speaking, they are mistaken because it is not true. “There have been events, and all we know about the events of March 1, there are people who are somehow accused for those events, I don’t know anything about the court proceedings and I think the court is the one who can give estimations, I can’t give any estimation,” said Heghine Bisharyan. By the way, the LS faction head is angry at some people who are trying to “privatize” the events of March 1. Certainly he hasn’t clarified yet whether he is concerned about those events or no, but at least he says that maybe his heart worries about those events more than anyone else. “I don’t want anyone to privatize the events of March 1, it happened in our country and to our people, and I think we shouldn’t separate everything and the coalition, government, opposition… I don’t want to separate because ultimately my heart is worried more than anyone else. I don’t think that there are people who don’t care while the others are worried too much.”