Council of Europe should urge Armenian opposition back to parliament – paper

Ayots Ashkar, Yerevan
15 Jun 04

Text of Artak Grigoryan report by Armenian newspaper Ayots Ashkar on
15 June headlined “What do we go to Strasbourg with?”

The upcoming visit [23-24 June] of President Robert Kocharyan to
Strasbourg and his speech at the PACE [Parliamentary Assembly of
the Council of Europe] session will be a special conclusion to the
process of the fulfilment of our country’s obligations towards the
Council of Europe and on the whole of Armenia’s integration into
European structures.

What balance of achievements and shortcomings will Armenia submit
to Strasbourg? Are they enough to keep the rating and authority of
our country at a high level and to make integration into European
structures irreversible? Especially now that, thanks to the efforts
of the opposition, the Council of Europe has in fact put forward
new demands.

The calm and balanced steps taken by the authorities recently show that
the opposition is losing. The reason is obvious: Armenia is fulfilling
its new demands point by point. For this reason the opposition’s modus
operandi of avoiding dialogue and banking on a parliamentary fight is
becoming strange. Let us recall that one of the main demands of PACE
was to start dialogue. It turns out that the PACE demands are a compass
for the activity of one sector of the Armenian political field, the
authorities, but for the opposition they are a means to put pressure
on the authorities. It has become obvious that, notwithstanding the
problem of the fulfilment of Armenia’s obligations towards them, the
European structures have become a tool for the radicals in forming
a negative image of our country.

We think that after all this our president may calmly leave for
Strasbourg and present specific information about the fulfilment
of PACE’s demands, as well as the process of fulfilling Armenia’s
long-term obligations towards the Council of Europe. One thing is
evident: in terms of meeting our country’s commitments to European
structures, the authorities are ahead of the opposition in all senses.

During the president’s upcoming visit to Strasbourg, the existence of
such serious pre-conditions will allow the last “European card” to be
snatched from the hands of the radical opposition. The time has come
for Europe to keep parity on the fulfilment of its decisions and to
put pressure not only on the authorities, but also on the opposition,
demanding that it come back to parliament and finish jointly the
process of fulfilling Armenia’s obligations towards the Council of
Europe. Because a successful ending of this process is favourable,
not only to Armenia, but also to Europe.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress