A TEMPORARY DEVIATION VS. A CONSTANT REGRESS
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
April 01, 2008

Under the leadership of PER SYORGEN, the delegation of the Ago
Monitoring Group of the CoE Council of Ministers yesterday met
with Foreign Minister VARDAN OSKANYAN. Along with other issues,
the parties discussed the ways of overcoming the internal political
tensions continuing after the March 1 events.

In a joint press conference convened at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
the European official first stated that the Group which had arrived in
Armenia was an unprecedented and influential delegation consisting of
9 members, i.e. delegates representing 9 countries. This means that
considering Armenia a European state, the European Union is deeply
"concerned about and interested in" the complex situation resulting
from the mass disorders of March 1.

The Ago group submitted to V. Oskanyan a package of proposals
consisting of 6 points.

Detailing the "strategy" of the CoE Council of Ministers, the speaker
notified that the first proposal concerns the protection of the rights
of the individuals detained in connection with the March 1 incidents.

"Yesterday, we visited the penitentiary of ‘Kentron’ district and
were informed that the detainees were isolated from their families,"
he stated, adding that the previous day he had managed to discuss the
issue with the Prosecutor General and Foreign Minister, and they had
expressed assurance that the problem would be solved in a couple of
days’ time."

Second, "The European Union supports the international organizations
which have called for releasing the individuals detained with
political considerations." While answering the questions, the speaker
did not make it clear how to distinguish the individuals detained
with political considerations from those inciting disorders and
provocations, and if the organizers of the "peaceful rallies" have
made statements and committed actions resulting in murders, ravage
and vandalism, whether this constitutes a "political activity" or a
grave criminal offence.

The second demand (or proposal) advanced to the RA authorities,
particularly the Minister of Justice, is that the authorities shall
periodically and at regular intervals notify the Council of Ministers
of both the process of releasing the detainees and the judicial
procedures.

The fourth enshrined in the document is quite "fuzzy". It proposes the
RA authorities to conduct an impartial and "independent investigation"
and clarify all the circumstances of the March 1 disorders.

As to how the group of "independent investigators" will be set up and
who will be its members, Head of the delegation is not aware of it;
nor does he want to go into details. The only thing he definitely
knows is that it should be a "national" investigation. That’s to say,
"Such investigation shall be conducted by the state" and not the
international investigators, as expected by the activists of the
liberation movement.

The fifth point of the proposals concerns the changes regulating the
rights and liberties envisaged by the law on "Marches, Demonstrations
and Rallies". "We regret that the law was adopted in conditions of the
regime of the state of emergency, without consultations and discussions
with the European Union. The Venice Committee has conducted an urgent
expertise of the newly adopted law and has criticizing assessments
which have already been submitted to the Ministry of Justice and the
Government. We anticipate the Government to raise those questions in
the Parliament," Mr. Syorgen said. He also added that "the freedom
of gatherings cannot be a subject of bargainings".

And finally, by proposing the 6th point, the Ago group calls on the
"parties" to initiate, without preconditions, a round table discussion
over the issues of concern. This is proposed as a key to decreasing the
tension and as a settlement of the "conflict" between the authorities
and the opposition.

What sanctions shall be applied against Armenia should the proposals
be ignored? In response to this question, the speaker uttered some
hazy words about "responsibility", without concretizing ideas.

One of the journalists was interested to know to what extent the
"Armenian side" was inclined to meet the Ago group initiative
half-way. In response to the question, the Foreign Minister noted
that the issue was still to be considered on the level of the acting
President and the President-elect, so the authorities’ attitude
towards the CoE initiative is still to be seen.

In general, V. Oskanyan finds that the European community, and
particularly, the delegates of the Ago Group consider us, Armenians,
"to be on the right path, and what happened on March 1 is not a
constant regress but rather, a temporary deviation from the adopted
course. And our task is to undertake the right steps to get the
country on a normal and democratic path as quickly as possible."

AZERBAIJAN PLAYS A DIRTY TRICK

In response to the questions, V. Oskanyan touched upon the recent
exacerbations of the Azerbaijani blackmail tactics, including the
Foreign Ministry’s statement saying that Azerbaijan has rejected
"the request of the Armenian side" to organize a meeting between
Ilham Aliev and Serge Sargsyan within the frameworks of the NATO
summit. "It’s too bad Azerbaijan has refused to organize a meeting,
but the Armenian side has neither made a request nor acted as an
initiator. "The proposal was advanced by the Co-Chairs. Our answer
was, ‘if you make the proposal and Azerbaijan agrees, we will agree
too.’ Azerbaijan is playing a dirty trick. What it is doing is not,
anyway, in harmony with the steps they have been making recently".