ArmenPress
May 6 2004

PRESIDENT KOCHARIAN DOWNPLAYS REPERCUSSIONS OF PACE RESOLUTION

YEREVAN, MAY 6, ARMENPRESS: Armenian president Robert Kocharian
has swollen today the chorus of senior government officials who
downplayed the possible repercussions of an April 28 resolution of
the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) that
called on Armenian authorities to warn that the PACE will consider
stripping its Armenian members of their voting rights unless the
authorities respect citizens’ freedom of movement and assembly,
release individuals detained for their participation in the recent
opposition rallies and investigates all “human rights abuses” by next
September.
Speaking to reporters, Kocharian said: “In what is related to its
(resolution) content I do not see major problems and there are also
some serious inaccuracies concerning the chronology of the events.”
In response to a question how he would comment on the document,
Kocharian said the authorities will prepare the response to the
descriptive segment of the resolution in few days and that the
official response to the resolution will be submitted to PACE June
session. He said a PACE monitoring delegation will arrive in Armenia
soon to examine the situation on the ground.
“Some of the wordings of the resolution do not reflect the real
situation, however, Armenia has its own voice in PACE and an
intention to defend it,” Kocharian said, adding that the Council of
Europe should not be perceived as the former Politburo, which took
and imposed decisions. “The Council of Europe is an organization, of
which we are a member and Armenia’s task there is to defend its
common interests rather than to clear its domestic matters,” he said.
Kocharian also downplayed fears that international discussions on
Armenia’s political instability may affect foreign investment.
“Armenian economy would suffer bigger damages if the investors were
not sure of Armenian authorities’ abilities to establish order in the
country,” he said, but admitted, however, that such discussions
nevertheless may have some negative impact. “Those people who are
trying to escalate the tension are doing a bad job as all negative
repercussions would eventually hit all Armenian citizens,” he said.