Peter Semneby: Events in Armenia were and remain in focus of EU’s
attention

2008-03-07 19:02:00

ArmInfo. Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly Tigran Torosyan
discussed the post-electoral processes in Armenia with EU Special
Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby, Friday, the
Armenian presidential press-service told ArmInfo.

"Unfortunately, the March 1 night tragic events that caused human
victims have nothing to do with election processes", Torosyan said. He
stressed that he advocates unbiased and adequate attitude to these
events, however, he disagrees with the statements that the authorities
applied force against the peaceful demonstrators. Peaceful
demonstrators don’t build barricades or use arms and metal rods, he
noted. According to him, during the illegal rallies the police tried to
search the place of the rally and the demonstrators used force against
the police. "If the authorities calmly waited for nine days without
interfering with the illegal rallies, they could have waited another
week until the Constitutional Court took its decision", the Speaker
said.

Torosyan also noted that these events couldn’t reflect the social
unrest, as such unrest could have been expressed after the
parliamentary election, eight months ago. "The situation in the country
has not got worse over this period. On the contrary, the budget has
increased, wages and pensions have grown", he said. The Speaker also
pointed out the steps that should be taken to settle the situation,
particularly, radical reforms should be held in the socio-political
life, measures aimed at establishment of political organizations and
civil society should be held, as they will contribute to establishment
of full-fledged social justice which should be based on cooperation of
political forces.

Torosyan recalled that during both the pre-electoral and post-electoral
periods, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, which gained victory
at the Feb 19 presidential election, came pout with proposals on
cooperation. These proposals have already given results. Torosyan noted
that after the court delivers a verdict, the criminal offenders should
be punished, and there can be no dialogue with them. "One shouldn’t
create a precedent showing that political and legal problems can be
solved by such methods", Torosyan said.

In his turn, Semneby pointed out that the EU was attentively following
the developments in Armenia as Armenia was a significant partner for
that organization. Semneby assured Torosyan that the EU was eager to
help Armenia to overcome the situation. He said that the restrictions
imposed in Armenia were not desirable and the political forces of the
country had to be involved in the settlement process. The state of
emergency must be lifted as soon as possible.

Semneby welcomed the initiative of the newly elected president of
Armenia Serzh Sargsyan to ooperate with the opposition and pointed out
the importance of such cooperation. Torosyan said that an investigation
group had been set up for inquiring into the causes of the March 1
disorders. He said that he had always respected the political views of
the opposition but burning cars was not the right way to express
political view. "Any crime, whoever commits it, must be punished,"
Torosyan said.

Semneby asked Torosyan to tell him about the decision of the parliament
to deprive four opposition deputies of their immunity. He said that it
was quite a serious step. Torosyan said that he had worked in the
parliament for nine years and it was the first time that it was forced
to pass such a decision. Only once a deputy was deprived of his
immunity: Mushegh Movsisyan, who was charged with complicity in the Oct
27 1999 terrorist act. But later he was released and his immunity was
restored.

Torosyan pointed out that the parliament was not a judge and could not
decide whether a person had committed a crime or not. However, it had
to support the investigation. "Today, two of the four suspected
deputies are hiding from the police and we cannot guarantee that the
other two would not have followed suit," Torosyan said. He expressed
hope that the investigation would show if the deputies were guilty or
not. "And if they are not they will be set free," Torosyan said.