PRESS CONFERENCE

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
13 June 05

On June 8th, the speaker of the National Assembly of NKR gave a press
conference as the term of the parliament is coming to its end. The
subject of the press conference was the summary of five years work of
the National Assembly. The present parliament is multi-party. Among
the members of parliament there are members of the Democratic Union
Artsakh, Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Artsakh Armenakan, the
social democrats, as well as independent parliamentarians. Of the 33
members of parliament 32 have higher education, four are candidates
of sciences, 2 are female. The age at the time of election was 40
– 44. There are six standing committees, as well as ad hoc
committees on issues concerning different spheres were set up and
operated. There are two parliamentary factions: Democratic Party of
Artsakh (former Democratic Union Artsakh) which had 21 and currently
has 19 members, and ARF which had 9 and currently has 8 members. The
National Assembly has a presidium, comprising the speaker of the
National Assembly, the vice speaker, the chairmen of the standing
committees and the directors of the parliamentary factions. Fourteen
members of parliament work on a permanent basis. Two years ago the
Audit Chamber was established, the chairman and the vice chairman of
which are members of parliament. “I cannot grade the work of the
parliament as excellent but you can assert yourselves that there are
many achievements beside the things the parliament failed to do. The
important thing is that the work of this parliament is several steps
ahead the previous parliament; there should be a tendency and a
tradition that every parliament should go ahead the previous,”
said Speaker Oleg Yessayan. According to him, 300 meetings of
parliament have taken place, about 330 laws were adopted, plus the 10
bills to be discussed at the upcoming meeting. Of the mentioned bills
53 were undertaken by members of parliament. The speaker of the
National Assembly informed that the laws adopted by the third
parliament outnumber the laws adopted by the previous parliament and
are twice as much as the second parliament. Forty hearings on
different levels were held, allowing the members of parliament to
learn the opinions of not only the members of parliament and the
government but also experts. According to the speaker of the National
Assembly, the meetings of the parliament were not turned into
political shows but raised problems which worry the voters. The links
between the parliaments of Armenia and NKR and cooperation with other
countries has become closer. In this reference Oleg Yessayan regarded
the parliament as accomplished, and assessed the work of the
parliament positively. The adopted laws enabled to coordinate the
political and economic environment, introduce changes into the
non-governmental and social sectors. There are also open problems
which the government could not solve for objective and subjective
reasons. “We wish the next parliament do all that we failed to
do. Among the problems which have not been solved I would point out
the increase of the political role of the parliament and
parliamentary control. The parliament should be an independent body,
and I wish the next parliament to be such. But I insist that our
parliament was more independent than the previous one. That is to
say, everything is still in the stage of formation. Good luck to all
of us on this way,” he said. The journalists present were
interested to know the evaluation of the speaker of the election
campaign and his expectations from the next parliament. “We need
to have a better parliament than the previous. The previous
parliament provided conditions for this. A legislation was created,
we only have to make sure that the laws work.” Oleg Yessayan
explained his decision not to run for the parliament for another term
by considering his experience as a parliamentarian enough but he is
not going to retire from politics. “The parliament of Karabakh as
a state has a biography of 14 years, I have been a member of
parliament for 12 years, and speaker for 8 years. I consider that my
activity as a parliamentarian is enough, and I think there is point
in doing some other kind of work. Perhaps, there will be proposals,
and after thinking over them and making a decision I will give a
definite answer to your question,” mentioned Oleg Yessayan. Part
of the current members of parliament will run for the parliament for
another term. Oleg Yessayan does not see anything negative in this
because their experience may be useful for the new parliament. In the
end O. Yessayan thanked the journalists for cooperation, promising
new meetings and interviews when he in his new position.

SRBUHI VANIAN.
13-06-2005