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  • Pace Makes Balanced Assessments

    PACE MAKES BALANCED ASSESSMENTS

    Hayots Ashkhar Daily
    Published on April 17, 2008
    Armenia

    Today, the draft resolution on the activity of the democratic
    institutions in Armenia will be put to vote by the Parliamentary
    Assembly of the Council of Europe. Three months after adopting the
    document, PACE will touch upon the issue during its summer session.

    In a press-conference convened on April 15, J. Prescott, Head of the
    PACE observation mission, J. Colombey, Speaker of the PACE Observation
    Mission, and Thomas Hammerberg, Council of Europe Commissioner
    for Human Rights, expressed clear-cut and balanced assessments with
    regard to our country's compliance with its commitments. They propose
    civilized methods for our authorities and opposition to overcome the
    existing situation.

    They are based on three main principles:

    First: PACE, in the person of John Prescott, Head of its observation
    mission, reconfirms the international community's fundamental
    assessment with regard to the February 19 presidential elections and
    reiterates that they were "mostly in line with the standards of the
    Council of Europe."

    Second: The major part of the proposals addressed to Armenia through
    the PACE Resolution concern the investigation and the negative
    consequences of the March 1-2 tragic events rather than the February
    19 elections.

    Third: The PACE assessments and proposals aim to create certain bases
    of bilateral commitments with the purpose of restoring the civilized
    relations between the Armenian authorities and opposition.

    The latter principle is strictly important for the simple reason that
    Ter-Petrosyan and his proponents are, by their statements, interviews
    and publications, making unsuccessful attempts of "confusing" PACE's
    sincere concerns and proposals with some "punitive functions" which
    are being sketched in their bright imagination. And because no such
    tendencies are to be found in the PACE proposals, they are beginning
    to condemn the balanced attitude of the European structures, guiding
    themselves by the logic "our response to Chamberlain".

    It was L. Ter-Petrosyan that laid the foundations of the propaganda
    which is being actively circulated in the press supporting the
    Armenian Pan-National Movement. In the interview to the Russian "Novoe
    Izvestia" newspaper, the ex-President announced that by demanding
    Armenia's compliance with its obligations, the Western structures
    "simultaneously forget about their obligations to Armenia".

    A question arises as to how the Western structures should perform
    their obligations to the Armenian people, by ignoring the authorities
    of the state. It turns out that the solution of such puzzle consists
    in Ter-Petrosyan's resolution-desire saying "these authorities will
    not be recognized". And as we have already mentioned, it contradicts
    J. Prescott's assessment regarding the February 19 elections.

    It turns out that L. Ter-Petrosyan and his propaganda machine are
    not actually interested in the democratic ways towards overcoming
    the situation, as proposed by the PACE Resolution. They only want
    to achieve the non-recognition of the election results and have new
    opportunities for destabilizing the internal political situation.

    It appears that for some people, PACE is just a "tool" for acceding
    to power in one's own country with the help of "foreigners" rather
    than a means of strengthening democracy.

    The Azeri members of the PACE delegation are initiating attempts of
    "rotating" the same tool from another side, advancing the counteraction
    of A. Herkel, co-speaker of Azerbaijan in the Parliamentary Assembly of
    the Council of Europe. Reiterating the contents of the dissatisfaction
    voiced by the press-supporting the Armenian Pan-National Movement,
    Azerbaijani co-speakers in the PACE Monitoring Committee S. Seidov,
    G. Pashaev and others are laughing away the serious proposals discussed
    in Strasburg with regard to the March 1-2 events.

    In such conditions, there obviously emerges a certain convergence
    of ideas and approaches between the leadership of the Parliamentary
    Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Armenian authorities in
    terms of putting an end to the internal and external speculations
    of the events that became a tragedy for our country and people and
    getting Armenia on the path of regular development.

    Implementing the proposals in the course of three months, the Armenian
    authorities may leave their internal and external rivals "offside".
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