Will PACE apply sanctions?
27.12.2008 14:11
Lena Badeyan
"Radiolur"
Only one question has been discussed in Armenia after the sitting of
the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe: will Armenia be punished or not? Former head of the Armenian
delegation to PACE Tigran Torosyan and current member of the delegation
consider that this approach is incorrect. In their opinion, the one who
has a problem should think about the ways to solve those issues.
Besides, in the current situation it’s not correct to condemn the
members of the delegation for bad work.
Serious events are expected in Armenia in January, former head of the
Armenian delegation Tigran Torosyan considers. He notes that the limit
of precautions has been exhausted. `You may remember that at the
beginning the Parliamentary Assembly said: we will apply sanctions if
you fail to take certain steps before the January session. Later they
extended the time. In the current draft resolution there are no
conditions. It simply states that if the problems are not solved before
the January session, the Armenian delegation will be deprived of voting
right.’
No one should be blamed for the current situation, Raffi Hovhannisyan
notes. We simply need to take steps to solve the existing problems.
Raffi Hovhannisyan, who boycotts the plenary sittings of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, continues=2
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participating in the activity of all PACE Committees. He participated
in the last sitting of the Monitoring Committee. This time the Armenian
delegation faced great difficulties with reaching certain concessions
with Europeans, Raffi Hovhannisyan recalls.
`Their main target will be the issue of releasing the prisoners. This
is the trigger and it is in the hands of the authorities,’ Raffi
Hovhannisyan said.