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October 5, 2007

Raffi Hovannisian at the Council of Europe

Strasbourg–Heritage Party leader and member of parliament, Raffi K.
Hovannisian, attended the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) as part of the Armenian National
Assembly delegation. The conference was held at PACE headquarters in
Strasbourg, France on October 1-5.

Hovannisian first took part in the session of the European People’s
Party (EPP) Group. In rebuttal to the Azeri delegation’s anti-Armenian
presentation, Hovannisian said "Instead of attempting to gain
dividends by means of ‘squeezing in’ incomplete and unsubstantiated
information with respect to the Mountainous Karabagh issue, the report
maker of the Group is required to represent EPP values to the utmost."

Later, he met with heads of state and diplomats from Europe, including
the President of Montenegro Filip Vujanovic; Secretary General
Christopher Grayson of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science, and
Education; British MP Eddie O’Hara, PACE rapporteur on the cultural
heritage in the South Caucasus; Secretary General of the Council of
Europe Terry Davis; President of PACE René van der Linden; and
President of the EPP Group Luc Van den Brande. The many topics
discussed included cooperation in the challenges of democracy, the
self-determination of nations, and the ruin of cultural landmarks.
Hovannisian discussed with Chair Emanuel Zingeris of the PACE
Sub-Committee on the Cultural Heritage the destruction of the
crosstones located at the medieval Armenian cemetery of Jugha in
Nakhijevan, and stressed the need to take drastic preventive measures.
Raffi Hovannisian then participated in the plenary session of the PACE
Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and delivered a speech on
the Darfur crisis. Hovannisian mentioned the "Dream for Darfur"
Olympic torch-lighting ceremony which occurred last week at Yerevan at
the memorial to the Armenian genocide and in the presence of the
Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Rowan Williams, survivors of the
Holocaust, survivors from Darfur and survivors of the great genocide
in the late-Ottoman empire. He stated "Whether we are discussing the
destruction of the Armenian homeland and civilization at the beginning
of the 20th century, the Holocaust, Cambodia or Rwanda, Darfur is one
common European challenge." Hovannisian added "The rights to life,
liberty, identity, dignity and homeland are inalienable and, as
Europeans, we must be the torch-bearers for their realization." He
also pointed to the need to draw a distinct connection between the
past, the present and the future, and to secure a European future.

Subsequently, Raffi Hovannisian took part in the discussion, held by
the PACE Sub-Committee on the Media, which examined the liberty of
speech in Turkey and Belarus. Hovannisian also had a conversation with
Jacques Legendre, Chair of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science and
Education, during which he expressed a conviction that "the Armenian
people’s cultural treasures located in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and
Nakhijevan are an indivisible part of the European historical
heritage."

Through October 3rd and 4th, Hovannisian as part of the Armenian
parliamentary delegation had a meeting with Thomas Hammerberg, the
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights and gave an
intervention before the Committee on Culture, Science, and Education.
He called attention to the destruction of old Jugha by a member-state
of the Council of Europe and the scandalous refusal of the Azerbaijani
authorities to grant site access to an official PACE rapporteur.

Raffi Hovannisian left Strasbourg today for Reykjavik, Iceland in
order to take part as a member of the Armenian delegation in NATO’s
Parliamentary Assembly.

For Raffi Hovannisian’s speech on the Darfur crisis please find link
nts/Records/2007/E/0710021000E.htm

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land.
Its central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002,
Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10)
532.697, email at office@heritage.am or info@heritage.am, and website
at

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress