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THE HERITAGE PARTY EXPRESSES ITS CONCERNS OVER SEVERAL UNACCEPTABLE AND DANGEROUS PROVISIONS
hetq
15:31, September 14, 2011
To: Mr. Dick Marty
Chairperson, PACE Monitoring Committee
Ms. Josette Durrieu
First Vice-Chairperson
Mr. Pedro Agramunt Fond de Mora
Second Vice-Chairperson
Ms. Karin S. Woldseth
Third Vice-Chairperson
PACE Monitoring Committee members
Dear Colleagues,
The Heritage Party has always highly appreciated the activities of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its Monitoring
Committee in supporting democracy and human rights inArmenia. We
also do realize that no matter how hardArmenia's civil society and
democratic opposition work no democratic reforms would be carried out
inArmeniawithout the consistent support of the Council of Europe and
its Parliamentary Assembly.
However, the Heritage Party has always encouraged our PACE colleagues
to apply the highest European standards towardsArmenia: this is the
only way to overcome attempts of imitation instead of genuine reforms.
Recently, the Armenian public learned about the draft resolution
called "The Functioning of Democratic Institutions inArmenia,"
prepared by PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs John Prescott
and Axel Fischer, to be adopted by the PACE.
While sharing many of the co-rapporteurs' concerns as well as the
priorities set for the democratic development of Armenia, such as
the conduct of genuinely free and fair elections, preventing the
March 2008 events from happening in the future, and the necessity to
include all the political forces in the process aimed at alleviating
the political tension, the Heritage Party, however, expresses its
concerns over several unacceptable and dangerous provisions contained
in the draft which cast a shadow upon the entire spirit and the main
goal of the document. In this respect, we would like to draw your
attention to the following observations:
1.The draft resolution welcomes the "renewed impetus" given by the
President of Armenia in investigating the 1 March 2008 deaths and calls
for publication of a final--or at least an interim--report before the
end of 2011. We still do not believe that the incumbent authorities
are going to investigate the March 2008 deaths unless Serzh Sargsyan
restores the Fact-finding Group, formed from the experts appointed
by the ruling coalition, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary
opposition and which, unlike the law-enforcement agencies, had worked
effectively, leaving aside the need for engaging international experts
in the process, something that has continually been demanded by the
opposition, including the Heritage Party.
Besides, Provision 11 of the draft, which says that "the Assembly
considers that the outcome of the latest general amnesty, the renewed
impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and
the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition
and the ruling coalition meant that the chapter on the March 2008
events can finally be considered closed" is entirely unacceptable
to us. Basic logic dictates that this page can be closed only after
those responsible for the 10 deaths are revealed and not as a result
of the above-mentioned activities.
2.We voice our concern over the co-rapporteurs' positive assessment
of the new election code: the code was drafted in violation of PACE
Resolutions 1609 and 1677 and adopted without taking into consideration
the key proposals of the parliamentary opposition.
What's more, the Assembly calls upon all political forces "to actively
contribute to a democratic election process and to refrain from any
action or statements that could undermine the public trust in the
election process and its outcome." The recent application of the
Election Code has already demonstrated that the authorities have
chosen the way of jeopardizing the legitimacy of the elections:
the transparency of the process is endangered and the public
trust undermined by the mere fact that former or new members of all
parliamentary political parties except the opposition Heritage party
were included in the Central Electoral Commission and the district
electoral commissions.
Dear colleagues,
The co-rapporteurs call on the Assembly to "welcome the close and
constructive cooperation between the Assembly and the Armenian
authorities" that can be considered to be "an example for the
development of cooperation in the framework of the Monitoring
Procedure of the Assembly." We would like to add that the ignoring
of the Armenian opposition forces' opinions by the PACE Monitoring
Committee may serve as a perfect example of how the relations between
the PACE and the opposition of any country SHOULD NOT be. We hope
that that the Assembly will change this negative tradition of ignoring
the opposition by the PACE co-rapporteurs and, by taking into account
these observations, would make necessary changes in the final version
of the resolution onArmenia.
Styopa Safaryan
Leader of the Heritage Party faction in the National Assembly
Zaruhi Postanjyan
Heritage Party representative in the Armenian delegation to PACE
hetq
15:31, September 14, 2011
To: Mr. Dick Marty
Chairperson, PACE Monitoring Committee
Ms. Josette Durrieu
First Vice-Chairperson
Mr. Pedro Agramunt Fond de Mora
Second Vice-Chairperson
Ms. Karin S. Woldseth
Third Vice-Chairperson
PACE Monitoring Committee members
Dear Colleagues,
The Heritage Party has always highly appreciated the activities of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its Monitoring
Committee in supporting democracy and human rights inArmenia. We
also do realize that no matter how hardArmenia's civil society and
democratic opposition work no democratic reforms would be carried out
inArmeniawithout the consistent support of the Council of Europe and
its Parliamentary Assembly.
However, the Heritage Party has always encouraged our PACE colleagues
to apply the highest European standards towardsArmenia: this is the
only way to overcome attempts of imitation instead of genuine reforms.
Recently, the Armenian public learned about the draft resolution
called "The Functioning of Democratic Institutions inArmenia,"
prepared by PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs John Prescott
and Axel Fischer, to be adopted by the PACE.
While sharing many of the co-rapporteurs' concerns as well as the
priorities set for the democratic development of Armenia, such as
the conduct of genuinely free and fair elections, preventing the
March 2008 events from happening in the future, and the necessity to
include all the political forces in the process aimed at alleviating
the political tension, the Heritage Party, however, expresses its
concerns over several unacceptable and dangerous provisions contained
in the draft which cast a shadow upon the entire spirit and the main
goal of the document. In this respect, we would like to draw your
attention to the following observations:
1.The draft resolution welcomes the "renewed impetus" given by the
President of Armenia in investigating the 1 March 2008 deaths and calls
for publication of a final--or at least an interim--report before the
end of 2011. We still do not believe that the incumbent authorities
are going to investigate the March 2008 deaths unless Serzh Sargsyan
restores the Fact-finding Group, formed from the experts appointed
by the ruling coalition, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary
opposition and which, unlike the law-enforcement agencies, had worked
effectively, leaving aside the need for engaging international experts
in the process, something that has continually been demanded by the
opposition, including the Heritage Party.
Besides, Provision 11 of the draft, which says that "the Assembly
considers that the outcome of the latest general amnesty, the renewed
impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and
the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition
and the ruling coalition meant that the chapter on the March 2008
events can finally be considered closed" is entirely unacceptable
to us. Basic logic dictates that this page can be closed only after
those responsible for the 10 deaths are revealed and not as a result
of the above-mentioned activities.
2.We voice our concern over the co-rapporteurs' positive assessment
of the new election code: the code was drafted in violation of PACE
Resolutions 1609 and 1677 and adopted without taking into consideration
the key proposals of the parliamentary opposition.
What's more, the Assembly calls upon all political forces "to actively
contribute to a democratic election process and to refrain from any
action or statements that could undermine the public trust in the
election process and its outcome." The recent application of the
Election Code has already demonstrated that the authorities have
chosen the way of jeopardizing the legitimacy of the elections:
the transparency of the process is endangered and the public
trust undermined by the mere fact that former or new members of all
parliamentary political parties except the opposition Heritage party
were included in the Central Electoral Commission and the district
electoral commissions.
Dear colleagues,
The co-rapporteurs call on the Assembly to "welcome the close and
constructive cooperation between the Assembly and the Armenian
authorities" that can be considered to be "an example for the
development of cooperation in the framework of the Monitoring
Procedure of the Assembly." We would like to add that the ignoring
of the Armenian opposition forces' opinions by the PACE Monitoring
Committee may serve as a perfect example of how the relations between
the PACE and the opposition of any country SHOULD NOT be. We hope
that that the Assembly will change this negative tradition of ignoring
the opposition by the PACE co-rapporteurs and, by taking into account
these observations, would make necessary changes in the final version
of the resolution onArmenia.
Styopa Safaryan
Leader of the Heritage Party faction in the National Assembly
Zaruhi Postanjyan
Heritage Party representative in the Armenian delegation to PACE