RAFFI HOVANISSIAN ATTENDS PACE SESSION
Karine Asatryan

A1+
[01:37 pm] 29 September, 2008

An urgent debate on the consequences of the war between Georgia
and Russia will be the main focus of the autumn session of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), to be held in
Strasbourg at 11.30 (local time), on 29 September. The debate will be
in two parts: it starts on the morning of Tuesday 30 September and
resumes on the morning of Thursday 2 October. As part of the run-up
to the debate, an ad hoc committee will conduct a fact-finding visit
to Georgia and Russia from 22 to 25 September.

"Both Georgia and Russia could have done more to prevent the war
between them," said the head of a PACE delegation Luc van den Brande
(Belgium, EPP/CD) after visiting the two countries ahead of an urgent
debate on the consequences of the war next week in Strasbourg. Speaking
at a press conference in Tbilisi at the end of the second part of
the visit (24-25 September), Luc van den Brande said that it was
important to understand events leading up to the outbreak of war:
"This conflict didn’t start on 7 August," he pointed out.

Another highlight of the session will be the debate on the situation
in Cyprus, on Wednesday 1 October. Demetris Christofias, President
of the Republic of Cyprus, will address the Assembly on Tuesday 30
September, the day before the debate, and Mehmet Ali Talat, Leader
of the Turkish Cypriot Community, will do so on 1 October.

The Armenian delegation is comprised of David Harutiunian, Armen
Rustamian, Ishkhan Khachatrian, Avet Adonts and Raffi Hovanissian.

Reminder: Raffi Hovhannissian blamed the PACE for applying double
standards in June and said he was going to withdraw from the structure.