Even though the authorities have refused the offer to dialogue with delegations through announcements at different levels the ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan is still waiting for the answer of president Serzh Sargsyan.
Based on Ter-Petrosyan’s recent announcement, it is possible that the president will give the answer in the PACE. However, it is not clear yet when and where he will say that. However, definitely it will happen either on June 22 in Yerevan or in Strasbourg. The coalition representatives do not know anything about the president’s decision either. “The president may decide to say something here and make a broader announcement later in Strasbourg. However, we don’t know anything about yet and only the president knows the details,” said somebody to our newspaper.
On June 22 president Serzh Sargsyan will make a speech at the PACE plenary session in Strasbourg. The speech will last one hour, which will be followed by questions and answers. Based on the experience of presidents’ speeches in the PACE, definitely this time the Armenian president’s speech will be based on the CoE principles too, which means that the speech will be mostly dedicated to the reforms in Armenia. According to our sources of information, in his speech Serzh Sargsyan will speak about the efforts and actions taken to ease the political tension in the country, including the granted right for holding rallies in the Freedom square and releasing political prisoners as a result of amnesty. The PACE reporters on Armenia have already responded to these efforts naming them as a positive improvement. According to our source of information, the president will not give a clear answer concerning the opposition’s proposal to dialogue with delegations. According to our source, the president will make an announcement in the PACE stating that he has always been a supporter of dialogue and he is ready for dialogue with any political power but without delegations, which in fact does not mean transparency, and he supports direct transparent dialogue with any political power. He will also announce that the government is already in a dialogue with the opposition (by referring to the fulfillment of the demands of the opposition), and he does not see any necessity to cover this dialogue under the shadow of delegations. According to the coalition members, such announcement will be welcomed in the PACE because it will show how transparent the government is compared to the opposition. By the way, according to our source of information, the president will not mention the name of the ANC and will speak about the entire opposition. The president will also announce that the government, including the chief of the president’s administration, are ready to hear all the demands of the opposition, discuss and try to find solutions for their demands, however the opposition is not satisfied with that. According to the authorities, the dialogue should take place between the government and the groups of the society that are not satisfied with the current situation and government, thus the authorities are suggesting that the delegates of the government can be the heads of all governmental institutions. “Our answer is in fact the following: if you are complaining of the parliament, you should apply to the speaker of the parliament Hovik Abrahamyan. If you have complaints to the ministry of city construction, you should apply to Vardan Vardanyan,” we were told by a representative of the government, who said that it was excluded that there might be dialogue with the ANC over the issue of by-elections. Even more, according to this person, the president is also ready to dialogue with the ANC if any of the problems they raise may concern the president’s administration. Eleven days have remained till the PACE plenary session and it is not clear yet what will happen till then. By the way, the PACE delegates will have to ask their questions within 30 seconds, otherwise they may be interrupted. Zaruhi Postanjyan from Heritage party has already registered for asking a question, however she does not want to reveal the question and he wants to make it surprise for the president. In addition, one more MP from the coalition has registered to ask questions to the president to make a balance in case if it is necessary. More than half of Azerbaijan’s delegation has registered for asking questions to the president, however only Cavushoglu knows who those people are. According to the charter of the PACE, it is up to the PACE president to decide who can qill ask questions to the speaker and with what sequence. By the way, yesterday there was an announcement informing that the next rally of the ANC will take place on June 30. Definitely the ANC is waiting for Serzh Sargsyan’s speech in the PACE as well.