SECRETARY OF HERITAGE PARTY FACTION ON PACE MONITORING COMMITTEE DECISION: NOW THE PRESIDENT SHOULD MAKE A POLITICAL DECISION

ArmInfo
2008-12-18 19:38:00

ArmInfo. ‘Now it remains for President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan
to think over what happened and make a political decision’, Stepan
Safaryan, Secretary if Heritage opposition party parliamentary faction,
said to ArmInfo when asked to comment on Wednesday decision by PACE
Monitoring Committee.

He said that over the last 9 months the Armenian authorities have been
receiving warning messages by European officials. Unfortunately,
they did not take those messages seriously. ‘In September PACE
Monitoring Committee adopted a transitional report wherein it urged
the Armenian authorities to use the anniversary of independence
as a useful occasion to announce amnesty. When this call remained
unrealized, CE Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg made
rather harsh assessments. Over the last months the Armenian authorities
did not even try to imitate fulfillment of PACE resolutions No.1609
and No.1620, and now they have got what they deserve’, S. Safaryan
said. He is sure that the decision by PACE Monitoring Committee was
unexpected to the Armenian authorities since they hoped the activation
of the negotiations on Karabakh and Serzh Sargsyan’s initiatives on
Armenian-Turkish relations would allow favoring the international
community.

‘However, the authorities did not listen to the warning by Thomas
Hammarberg who had exactly declared recently in Yerevan that regional
processes cannot move the situation with human rights in Armenia
aside’, the oppositionist explained.

When commenting on Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan’s
statement who hopes that processes will take place in Armenia
which will make it possible to change suggestions of PACE Monitoring
Commission to better before the winter session of PACE, Stepan Safaryan
said: "I would like to hope that foreign minister expressing such
hope was basing on something specific. But must not forget that the
president adopts final decision and maybe Nalbandyan was trying to be
an optimist. At present Serzh Sargsyan has only one choice: either he
releases political prisoners, punishes those who were guilty for the
1 March events, ‘losing his face’ in a certain sense, or the whole
country will pay off for the present situation’.