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PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 - 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 - 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website: www.heritage.am
29 May 2008
RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AND HERITAGE AT EUROPEAN CONCLAVES
Paris, Berlin--Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party
and Armenia's first minister of foreign affairs, took part from May 21
to 28 in a series of international parliamentary conferences convened
in the French and German capitals.
In Paris from May 21 to 23, Raffi Hovannisian attended the meeting of
the Committee on Culture, Science and Education of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of which he is a member. He
addressed the Committee on agenda items relating to reports on youth
cooperation in Europe, the sports dimension of the Olympic Games, and
cultural heritage.
In this connection, Raffi Hovannisian expressed solidarity with Edward
O'Hara, the Committee's General Rapporteur on the Cultural Heritage,
who intended to commence his goodwill mission to the entire South
Caucasus with visits to Baku and Nakhichevan over the summer. The PACE
secretariat had written a letter to the head of the Azerbaijani
delegation, O'Hara reported, informing him of this intention but a
response was still pending. Upon this briefing by the Rapporteur, the
Azerbaijani delegate in the Committee launched a tirade against
Armenia, Mountainous Karabagh, PACE and Rapporteur O'Hara, effectively
revealing the predisposition of his government not to allow
realization of the mission. In conclusion, Hovannisian moved without
objection that the Committee provide full support to the O'Hara
initiative, finalize the modalities of his first visit by the upcoming
PACE session in June, and reauthorize him to carry out that mission
immediately thereafter and to report back to the Committee no later
than the September session about its results or, that failing, the
reasons for its failure.
In Berlin between May 23 and 28, Raffi Hovannisian joined MPs Artur
Aghabekyan and Karen Avagyan at the Reichstag to compose the Armenian
delegation to the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
(NATO PA). There Hovannisian addressed the Political Committee on a
draft report entitled "Iran: Making a Case for NATO's Political
Engagement," focusing among other topics on Iran's role in the area,
the priority of constructive engagement, as well as Mountainous
Karabagh's liberty, decolonization and lawfully-constituted
sovereignty as a stabilizing factor in terms of the Islamic Republic
and the broader region.
In the NATO PA meeting of the Committee on the Civil Dimension of
Security, under whose auspices Raffi Hovannisian and delegation
chairman Artur Aghabekyan had recently visited Serbia and Kosovo,
Hovannisian took the floor during the discussion on "The Assembly's
Contribution to NATO's Strategic Concept," suggesting that the new
concept aspire for the day--or at least countenance the
contingency--that the Transatlantic Alliance and Russia will
ultimately find themselves on the same security page, and that both
members of and applicants to the alliance should demonstrate their
commitment to its "shared values" by passing a periodic state-by-state
examination on democracy, rule of law, good governance, human rights
protection, and condemnation and prevention of genocide and other
crimes against humanity. In the same Committee, he also intervened in
response to a draft report on "State and Religion in the Black Sea
Region," addressing such issues as the Armenian Genocide,
self-determination and sovereignty for Artsakh, and minority rights
guarantees, or the deficiency thereof, in Turkey and Azerbaijan.
During the plenary session of the NATO PA, held on May 27 in the hall
of the German Bundestag, Raffi Hovannisian posed questions to NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on NATO's regional approach to
the Caucasus and on the ostensibly Kosovo-based reasons for
Azerbaijan's withdrawal from KFOR just as Armenia was doubling its
peacekeeping commitment to it. He also asked of German Minister of
Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier whether there was an inherent
connection between postwar Germany's fortitude and will to take
responsibility and seek redemption for the genocidal policies of its
predecessor regime and achievement of its current capacity of
leadership in the democratic world; against this background whether
there was any counsel he might offer to other NATO member-states with
similar histories; and finally whether the Federal Republic of
Germany, as the exemplary global benchmark in this field, was prepared
to take it to the highest level by recognizing the German military
role in the Great Genocide and attendant national dispossession of the
Armenian heartlands during and after World War One, in this way
guiding the primarily responsible party toward its own assumption of
history and a long-awaited normalization of relations between NATO
member Turkey and IPAP partner Armenia.
In the margins of the conclave Raffi Hovannisian also spoke at a
luncheon devoted to gender challenges in peacekeeping operations, and
conferred with a variety of public and political figures including
NATO PA President Jose Lello, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
President Ole von Beust of the Bundesrat, Chairman Karl Lamers of the
Bundestag delegation to the NATO PA, and other parliamentary and
congressional leaders from the United States, the Russian Federation,
the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and elsewhere.
Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land.
Its central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002,
Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10)
532.697, email at [email protected] or [email protected], and website
at www.heritage.am
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 - 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 - 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website: www.heritage.am
29 May 2008
RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AND HERITAGE AT EUROPEAN CONCLAVES
Paris, Berlin--Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party
and Armenia's first minister of foreign affairs, took part from May 21
to 28 in a series of international parliamentary conferences convened
in the French and German capitals.
In Paris from May 21 to 23, Raffi Hovannisian attended the meeting of
the Committee on Culture, Science and Education of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) of which he is a member. He
addressed the Committee on agenda items relating to reports on youth
cooperation in Europe, the sports dimension of the Olympic Games, and
cultural heritage.
In this connection, Raffi Hovannisian expressed solidarity with Edward
O'Hara, the Committee's General Rapporteur on the Cultural Heritage,
who intended to commence his goodwill mission to the entire South
Caucasus with visits to Baku and Nakhichevan over the summer. The PACE
secretariat had written a letter to the head of the Azerbaijani
delegation, O'Hara reported, informing him of this intention but a
response was still pending. Upon this briefing by the Rapporteur, the
Azerbaijani delegate in the Committee launched a tirade against
Armenia, Mountainous Karabagh, PACE and Rapporteur O'Hara, effectively
revealing the predisposition of his government not to allow
realization of the mission. In conclusion, Hovannisian moved without
objection that the Committee provide full support to the O'Hara
initiative, finalize the modalities of his first visit by the upcoming
PACE session in June, and reauthorize him to carry out that mission
immediately thereafter and to report back to the Committee no later
than the September session about its results or, that failing, the
reasons for its failure.
In Berlin between May 23 and 28, Raffi Hovannisian joined MPs Artur
Aghabekyan and Karen Avagyan at the Reichstag to compose the Armenian
delegation to the spring session of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
(NATO PA). There Hovannisian addressed the Political Committee on a
draft report entitled "Iran: Making a Case for NATO's Political
Engagement," focusing among other topics on Iran's role in the area,
the priority of constructive engagement, as well as Mountainous
Karabagh's liberty, decolonization and lawfully-constituted
sovereignty as a stabilizing factor in terms of the Islamic Republic
and the broader region.
In the NATO PA meeting of the Committee on the Civil Dimension of
Security, under whose auspices Raffi Hovannisian and delegation
chairman Artur Aghabekyan had recently visited Serbia and Kosovo,
Hovannisian took the floor during the discussion on "The Assembly's
Contribution to NATO's Strategic Concept," suggesting that the new
concept aspire for the day--or at least countenance the
contingency--that the Transatlantic Alliance and Russia will
ultimately find themselves on the same security page, and that both
members of and applicants to the alliance should demonstrate their
commitment to its "shared values" by passing a periodic state-by-state
examination on democracy, rule of law, good governance, human rights
protection, and condemnation and prevention of genocide and other
crimes against humanity. In the same Committee, he also intervened in
response to a draft report on "State and Religion in the Black Sea
Region," addressing such issues as the Armenian Genocide,
self-determination and sovereignty for Artsakh, and minority rights
guarantees, or the deficiency thereof, in Turkey and Azerbaijan.
During the plenary session of the NATO PA, held on May 27 in the hall
of the German Bundestag, Raffi Hovannisian posed questions to NATO
Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on NATO's regional approach to
the Caucasus and on the ostensibly Kosovo-based reasons for
Azerbaijan's withdrawal from KFOR just as Armenia was doubling its
peacekeeping commitment to it. He also asked of German Minister of
Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier whether there was an inherent
connection between postwar Germany's fortitude and will to take
responsibility and seek redemption for the genocidal policies of its
predecessor regime and achievement of its current capacity of
leadership in the democratic world; against this background whether
there was any counsel he might offer to other NATO member-states with
similar histories; and finally whether the Federal Republic of
Germany, as the exemplary global benchmark in this field, was prepared
to take it to the highest level by recognizing the German military
role in the Great Genocide and attendant national dispossession of the
Armenian heartlands during and after World War One, in this way
guiding the primarily responsible party toward its own assumption of
history and a long-awaited normalization of relations between NATO
member Turkey and IPAP partner Armenia.
In the margins of the conclave Raffi Hovannisian also spoke at a
luncheon devoted to gender challenges in peacekeeping operations, and
conferred with a variety of public and political figures including
NATO PA President Jose Lello, German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
President Ole von Beust of the Bundesrat, Chairman Karl Lamers of the
Bundestag delegation to the NATO PA, and other parliamentary and
congressional leaders from the United States, the Russian Federation,
the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, and elsewhere.
Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land.
Its central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002,
Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10)
532.697, email at [email protected] or [email protected], and website
at www.heritage.am