Armenian Speaker, European envoys discuss constitutional reforms

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11 May 05

The speaker of the Armenian National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, received
the rapporteurs of the [Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe] PACE
Monitoring Committee, Irzhi Yaskenya and George Kolumbie, today.

The meeting discussed the fulfilment of Armenia’s commitments to the PACE.
Asked by Yaskenya on constitutional reforms and a referendum, Bagdasaryan said
that the National Assembly had already adopted a draft of the constitutional
reforms in its first reading. The draft was drawn up by the coalition parties
which took into account the proposals of the Venice Commission of the PACE.

The speaker said that before the second reading, the draft would be discussed
with experts of the Venice Commission in order to bring the document into
line with the Council of Europe requirements.

[Passage omitted: minor details]

As for the resolution of the Nagornyy Karabakh problem, Bagdasaryan said that
Armenia is ready to continue peace talks and demonstrate a constructive
approach to the settlement of the conflict. At the meeting they also discussed
further democratic reforms in Armenia.