TIGRAN SARGSIAN: "EVERYTHING IS DONE SO THAT NO NORM OF LAW IS VIOLATED IN ARMENIA"

NOYAN TAPAN

JU LY 24

During the July 23 meeting of the RA Prime Minister Tigran Sargsian
and PACE Chairwoman Luis Maria de Puig, who is on a visit in Armenia,
the interlocutors touched upon the process of the fulfillment of PACE
Resolution N1609 under the title Activity of Democratic Institutions in
Armenia and proposals of Resolution N1620 on the latter’s fulfillment.

At the beginning of the talk the PACE Chairwoman underlined that in
Council of Europe no one wants to see Armenia in a difficult situation,
so, like the Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe, who
had arrived in Armenia before that, she also has come to encourage,
to stimulate so that the country moves forward and records success
in the fulfillment of the above mentioned resolutions.

Luis Maria de Puig noted the necessity of bringing out the truth about
the events of March 1-2. She spoke on such issues as the activity
of the NA Ad Hoc Commission and, connected with it, the proposal of
creating an independent working group introduced by the Commissioner
for Human Rights of Council of Europe; the arrest of the people
connected with the events of March; the legal field of regulating the
sphere of activity of the National Television and Radio Commission;
the opportunities of providing mass media with full freedom; the
enlarging of the authorizations of the opposition.

Touching upon the problem of the arrested, the PACE Chairwoman noted
that the Council of Europe can not tolerate political prisoners in
one of its member countries. "This is not acceptable for the Council
of Europe. But the thing is not about people who have committed a
crime. If crimes have been committed accompanied with violence it
should be differentiated: they have no connection with politics. What
is out of criminal sphere should be taken into account and the
prisoners having no connection with all this should be set free",
Luis Maria de Puig said.

T. Sargsian noted that in the solution of these problems the
authorities bear greater responsibility and well realize it introducing
very definite initiatives aimed at solving the existing problems. The
Prime Minister particularly spoke about wide cooperation of government
with NGOs and representatives of the opposition. "We are going to
continue our initiative of building bridges with the opposition,
and if the opposition takes this opportunity the situation in our
country will change", T. Sargsian said.

As regards the people towards whom the law enforcement bodies undertake
measures, in T. Sargsian’s belief, the authorities fully understand
the seriousness of the problem, and it is evident for everyone that
politicizing these court procedures is extremely dangerous for the
country. So, according to the Prime Minister, everything is done so
that no norm of law is violated.

According to the report provided to Noyan Tapan by the Information
and Public Relations Department of the RA government, during the the
talk the interlocutors touched upon the Nagorno Karabakh conflict
settlement process.

Taking the occasion of the meeting with PACE Chairwoman, the RA Prime
Minister expressed his concern with the formulation passed in the
Council of Europe June session, according to which, the development
of Azerbaijan’s democracy is connected with the restoration of the
territorial integrity. T.

Sargsian considered such a formulation extremely dangerous, endangering
the current negotiations process and an improper approach to European
system of values and basic provisions. The principle of territorial
integrity, according to the Prime Minister, is an equal norm of
rights, like the right of self-determination, and insisting that the
development of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan is difficult
without the restoration of territorial integrity is a step backwards
from the values adopted by PACE.