WOMEN MPS BEAR DOUBLE RESPONSIBILITY
By Susanna Margarian, Translated by L.H.

AZG Armenian Daily #164
11/09/2007

Social

"I am here to explain how great is to have women in the parliament",
told the journalists member of "Zharangutyun" party Larisa Alaverdian
at a press conference in "Urbat" club on September 6, after sharing
her viewpoints on the issues of Karabakh and the preferable image of
the candidate of president.

The journalists were more interested in the issue connected with the
member of "Zharangutyun" party and its representative in the Central
Electoral Commission Zoya Tadevosian, who signed the statement of the
CEC about the validity of the elections in the 15th Electoral District.

It’s worth to mention that the leader of the same party Raffi
Hovhannisian, who put his candidacy in the 15 ED, lost the elections
and announced that the elections were falsified. It means that
Z. Tadevosian acted against their party’s leader.

Larisa Alaverdian mentioned that CEC member only confirms the data
that come from the Election Centers, and then added that the viewpoint
of Vardan Khachatrian "Zoya Tadevosian have to take a correction"
the journalists might understand as "correction".

What about the Karabakh issue, the MP announced that it’s not
acceptable to put into circulation "the independence of Nagorno
Karabakh instead of the territories under the control of the Armenian
armed forces" resolution. According to Larisa Alaverdian those
territories are part of Nagorno Karabakh, they are the liberated and
re-integrated lands.

Larisa Alaverdian does not agree with the concern over the draft
law by the leader of Zharangutyun Raffi Hovhannisian about "de jure"
recognition of Karabakh and that it will have a negative effect on
the negotiation process. "The attitude of Azerbaijan is more extreme,
but it doesn’t impede the negotiations", she underlined.

What about the preferable theme of Larisa Alaverdian about women in
parliament, she reminded about an old saying: "a smart woman in any
society is to prevent a man from doing any unreasonableness".

"Armenia is in the 123rd position of the 138 countries’ list of the
involvement of women in parliament. "We must follow the example of
the democratic Republic of South Africa, which is in the 13th place
of the list", mentioned MP Larisa Alverdian.