The delegation against Postanjyan

06/02/2010 Armine AVETYAN

The Armenian delegation to PACE, which returned from Strasbourg last week, convened a news conference to update the public of their activities in the PACE. But it turned out that the press conference turned into a response to the member of the Heritage faction Zaruhi Postanjyan.

Let us remember that the latter wasn’t included in the main delegation and she had left for Strasbourg only after the mediation of the EPP. Despite being excluded from the delegation, Postanjyan traveled to Strasbourg to attend the PACE’s winter session that began its work. Her allegations of serious procedural violations in the change of the delegation make-up were swiftly picked up by the European People’s Party (EPP), one of the largest PACE factions. In accordance with the PACE statutes, the matter was immediately referred to the assembly’s Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs. The committee discussed it and found no violations on the part of the Armenian parliament leadership on Tuesday. According to David Harutiunyan, head of the Armenian delegation, the decision amounted to an automatic confirmation of the delegation’s credentials by the PACE. He accused Dashnaktsutyun and its PACE delegate Armen Rustamyan in particular of complicity in what he called an act of “cowardice” committed by the Armenian authorities. Postanjyan made a speech at the PACE session and stated that due to the events of March 1-2 Rustamyan cannot be a representative from the opposition because at that time the ARF was a member of the governmental coalition and in this regard the ARF doesn’t have a contrasting opinion compared to the government policy. Therefore, despite the fact that the Armenian issue wasn’t so thoroughly discussed during the PACE session the Armenian delegation was still in tension due to the exclusion of Postanjyan from the main delegation. And so yesterday, all the other members of the delegation were one by one retracting the publications in the media and Postanjyan’s comments. They were blaming Postanjyan of their fiasco in Strasbourg. Postanjyan herself at the beginning of yesterday’s press conference stated that she’d express her opinion in a separate press conference. During the press conference the first to talk was Davit Harutyunyan. The newly elected chair of the PACE Movlut Chavushoglu, his election, the role of the Armenian delegation in it, in particular the head of the Armenian delegation Harutyunyan have become an actively discussed topic in Armenia. They say, at least the media spreads such information, that Harutyunyan promoted the election of the Turkish delegate, or at least did not do anything to prevent it. After, of course, Harutyunyan accepted that he participated in the banquet on the occasion of Chavushoglu’s election. Postanjyan stated that she had circulated a formula to fail the voting of Chavushoglu but the rest of our delegation didn’t support her. Harutyunyan thoroughly depicted the history of the election Chavushoglu, “I should mention that the initiative doesn’t have any connection with Mr. Chavushoglu because it was circulated after the latter was elected. This initiative could be maximum discussed during this session of the Bureau and make a decision that e committee should prepare a report regarding the mentioned issue. It means all this could be done only after the election of Chavushoglu.” Artsruni Aghajanyan from the Legal State faction, who was elected in the main delegation replacing Postanjyan said that the EPP members realized that the issue of discussing the mandates of the delegation was not appropriate. “They have raised the issue by agreeing that a contrasting information was released. So an elephant was made out of nothing,” said Aghajanyan. Rustamyan added that Postanjyan used the opportunity of making a speech in the PACE session not to speak of the events of March 1-2 but to discuss the issue of her mandate. “In the meantime she drew accusations addressed to the ARF and I couldn’t help responding to them. And so I responded by saying that if we need to determine what is opposition we should know that there are certain criteria for that.” Rustamyan also dismissed her argument that Dashnaktsutyun was part of the country’s governing coalition during the crackdown. “It’s natural for a political force to be in government at one point and in opposition at another,” he said. The mutual accusations raised more questions about continued cooperation between the two parties. “And it’s very surprising for me that Mrs. Postanjyan is using the vocabulary of the ANC. I have been in the delegation of the PACE for 10 years now. I have always been in the main team not the reserve,” said Rustamyan by expressing his sorrow that things have gotten so complicated. Information was released that the members of our delegation had dinner with Chavushoglu in a restaurant after he was elected PACE chairman. “I have been a member of the European Democrats since the first day just like Chavushoglu. We have always met in a restaurant on Sundays before the beginning of the session with the whole group. We have been discussing the plans of the session. And if that’s the question then we have been in a restaurant with the political team. This time Mr. Chavushoglu, who ceases his active work in the initiatives, came to the restaurant late to thank the other team members for the past work,” answered Harutiunyan. “We only entered for several seconds. We went inside, shook his hand and left. What’s wrong with that if he’s supposed to chair the European Parliament for two years? Shall we consider him as an enemy and refuse to show up?” asked a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE Aghajanyan. Perhaps he didn’t notice that he had mistaken the European Parliament for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The Prosperous Armenia member Naira Zohrabyan informed that she and Rustamyan didn’t accept the invitation and didn’t go to dinner.