DAVID HARUTYUNYAN: "PACE ARTICLE TERMS ACCEPTABLE FOR ARMENIA"

Panorama.am
17:50 22/04/2008

"Two times PACE discussed Armenian question. The first one was when
Prescott made a report on the presidential elections and this report
does not differ from the one made just after the elections and the
second was the discussion of the article on democratic institutions
of Armenia," said the head of the Armenian delegation in PACE David
Harutyunyan, in a meeting with the journalists today. He said that
the problem was the lack of public trust and that the Prime Minister
kept his campaign as Prime Minister.

As for the democratic institutions of Armenia article discussion,
Harutyunyan said that the evaluation of the co-spokesmen Prescott and
Colombier were "rough" and added that Armenian side offered more than
30 proposals not to smooth the situation but to clarify it. "Armenia
should carry out serious steps to improve the democratic institutions’
activities," he said.

After D. Harutyunyan mentioned what points of the article should be
held till June. "First, creation of such mechanisms in the political
system that the opposition could have distinct rights and duties
towards the country. Second: the election processes: such electoral
committees should be created which will be free from any political
force," stated he.

As for the judicial freedom, Harutyunyan said that the country should
take appropriate measures to provide the field with freedom and to
improve the trust towards it.

"The next group of questions concerns arbitrary arrestments and
imprisonments. State supervision should be carried out to check the
mechanisms of arrestments by the police officers," said Harutyunyan.

The article mentions the free expertise of March 1 events.

In the end of the speech David Harutyunyan mentioned that all those
terms are acceptable for Armenian side and that the list of democratic
institutions presented was not the full one.