MANDATE WAS GIVEN TO MOSCOW

Lragir.am
26/01/10

Interview with the head of the Armenian Liberal Party, the former
head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, the former head of the NA
permanent commission on external relations Hovhannes Hovhannisyan

Yesterday, the PACE refused confirming the mandate of the Armenian
delegation. What would you say in this connection? Do you see a
political context here?

In accordance with the charter, if there is any change of a delegation,
before the start of a session, the current delegation needs to be
confirmed. The PACE chair learns about the changes and asks the
audience about objections. This time, the audience had objections,
the faction, a member of which is Zaruhi Postanjyan objected. The NA
leadership, by its decision, violated the equality of presence of NA
forces in the Armenian delegation. Delegation members of countries
such as Armenia must be equally divided between the government and
the opposition. Heritage is known as an oppositional force. While
the ARF was a governmental party and a Heritage member was logic to
be in the delegation. But the PACE discussed and decided to confirm
the delegation.

Will the fact that the newly-elected PACE chair is a Turk influence
PACE stances relating to Armenia?

In the primary period this fact will not have any influence. The
Turkish chair will try to be more cautious and attentive. But after,
he will do everything for solutions not to be in Armenia’s favor. When
I used to be the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE I used to
work with the PACE chair Lord Russell, and they make many concessions
for Armenia.

Before the PACE session, Nikol Pashinyan’s verdict was issued. Unlike
the other oppositional leaders, no amnesty was adopted for Pashinyan.

How will this fact influence the PACE?

PACE is not a country which takes decisions on Armenia. International
organizations are strictly connected with each other and their
decisions are linked. They have to be surprised at Nikol Pashinyan’s
verdict too. In particular, considering the fact that the Armenian
government regularly violated the PACE demands. The Armenian government
dislikes the PACE. So this structure needs to give an adequate answer.

After the trilateral meeting in Sochi, the Russian foreign minister
Lavrov stated that the preamble of the principles of Madrid is already
ready. What does this mean?

The final stage of the NKR settlement started. The Minsk group
understood that in case of general responsibility, the settlement
becomes long. And the co-chairing countries decided to give the mandate
of settling the issue to Russia. This became the personal problem of
Russia and the Russian president. They could not state just that the
meeting passed in a constructive atmosphere so the creation of the
preamble was said to be a tangible result. This was followed by the
statement of the Minsk group co-chair Merzlyakov who gave two weeks
to the sides to make proposals. Russia is engaged in the NKR issue
very intensively, so let us wait and time will show everything.

They say the preamble dwells on the Karabakh participation in the
negotiations too. What does this mean?

Of course, when the point is about actions in NKR, Karabakh has to
participate too. If not the NKR government who else is to be engaged
in this issue? This means that the settlement is really close.

Interview By Arman Galoyan

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress