PACE SHARES RESPONSIBILITY FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS WITH RA AUTHORITIES, DAVID SHAHNAZARIAN SAYS

NOYAN TAPAN

Ju ly 2

By postponing the fulfilment of conditions set before Armenia with
a new resolution N 1620 until January 2009, PACE has a goal to
discuss the issue of Armenia after the presidential elections to
be held in Azerbaijan. David Shahnazarian, a representative of the
National Movement (NM), expressed such an opinion at the July 2 press
conference. He represented the National Movement in Strasbourg together
with Hovhannes Igitian. According to him, the Council of Europe
continues showing a "balanced" attitude to Armenia and Azerbaijan,
and an estimation to the presidential elections in the two countries
will be given at the same sitting.

D. Shahnazarian affirmed that PACE shares responsibility for existence
of political prisoners in the country and other human rights violations
with the Armenian authorities. He attached importance to the amendment
made to draft resolution N 1620 at opposition’s suggestion, according
to which the issue of political prisoners will be discussed already
in September.

According to D. Shahnazarian, the activity of Armenia’s parliamentary
delegation was aimed at changing the imperative demands in the new
draft resolution into advisory ones. Being busy with these problems,
the delegation did noy pay attention to the resolution regarding
Azerbaijan.

While, according to D. Shahnazarian, the most dangerous provision
for Armenia was in the very resolution, which mentioned that no
democratization process can be implemented in Azerbaijan until that
country’s territorial integrity is restored.