MEMBERS OF THE NA FACTIONS MEET WITH THE PACE PRESIDENT
parliament.am
May 14 2010
Armenia
On May 13 the PACE President Mevlut CavuÅ~_oglu met with the members of
the Republican Party of Armenia faction of the National Assembly Davit
Harutyunyan, Artak Zakaryan, the members of the Prosperous Armenia
faction Aram Safaryan, Naira Zohrabyan and the members of the Country
of Law Artsruni Aghajanyan, Ishkhan Khachatryan and Gagik Baghdasaryan.
Welcoming the guest Davit Harutyunyan expressed hope that his visit
would promote the deepening and rapprochement of cooperation between
the National Assembly and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe.
Mevlut CavuÅ~_oglu thanked for the warm reception noting that he
as President of the Assembly emphasizes the deepening of relations
between the member states and is ready to show objective and balanced
approach towards everybody.
At Mr. CavuÅ~_oglu’s request the representatives of the coalition
factions expressed their positions on the fulfillment of the undertaken
obligations, on the procedure of the legislative reforms and on the
works being done in disclosing those guilty in March 1 events.
The member of the Prosperous Armenia Party faction considered
unacceptable the idea of creating an ad-hoc sub-committee in PACE for
the settlement of the Karabakh problem, as first, the Minsk Group is
involved in it, then CavuÅ~_oglu, who is the founder of the ruling
party, which adopted Turkey’s subjective and pro-Azerbaijani position,
cannot be unbiased. Touching upon the issue of the freedom of the mass
media Mrs. Zohrabyan said in particular that in summer the competition
of the frequencies will be announced and in case of winning in the
competition A1+ will have opportunity to re-start its works on the air.
The Secretary of the Country of Law faction Artsruni Aghajanyan highly
assessed Mr. CavuÅ~_oglu’s activities and expressed his conviction
that the European integration of Armenia and Turkey is only possible
by mutual trust and support. He said that the idea of creating a
sub-committee on NK issue is also unacceptable for his party and they
see the solution of the issue only within the framework of the Minsk
Group. He called on the Turkish diplomat to remain PACE President
but not representative of Turkey.
The member of the RPA faction Artak Zakaryan noted that Armenia was
taking consecutive steps in the sphere of the protection of human
rights and freedoms, taking into account the experience of the European
countries and expressed hope that our country was ready from now on
to make closer the relations with PACE. Regarding the creation of a
sub-committee for the settlement of the NK problem Mr. Zakaryan called
on the Turkish diplomat to abstain that initiative, and the negative
influence of which will be bigger, than its harm, and only the Minsk
format of the settlement of the problem is acceptable for Armenia.
The Secretary of the Prosperous Armenia faction Aram Safaryan noticed
that Turkey’s position of not ratifying the protocols directed to
the settlement of the relations between Armenia and Turkey at any
price since 1992 has not been changed, and it is continuing the
pro-Azerbaijani policy of the settlement of the Karabakh problem. He
ensured that Turkey would have more influence in the region, if it
adopted unbiased position.
The representative of the RPA faction Davit Harutyunyan said that
in autumn the edited version of the Electoral Code would be ready,
after which it would be sent to the Venice Commission for getting
a conclusion. In his opinion, it should be adopted at least a year
before the elections. The speaker also presented the procedure of
the police and juridical reforms. Touching upon the works of the
parliamentary ad-hoc committee inquiring the March 1 events Mr.
Harutyunyan noticed that the committee did its best within the
framework of its authorities but there is a lot to do for revealing
the guilty, and the investigating bodies continue to carry out the
pre-examination.
Mevlut CavuÅ~_oglu ensured that he had always been for the
normalization of the relations between Armenia and Turkey, whereas
in the press sometimes disinformation is spread confirming the
opposite. He, as PACE President, has always shown unbiased and balanced
approach to Armenia and Azerbaijan in the concerning issues. Regarding
the idea of creating a sub-committee that issue has been on the agenda
before being him in the presidency and only the bureau will decide
to leave that issue on the agenda or not.
On the same day the Head of the NA Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan,
Armen Martirosyan, Larisa Alaverdyan, Anahit Bakhshyan and Zaruhi
Postanjyan met with the PACE President Mevlut CavuÅ~_oglu.
Informing about his meetings and highlighting the opposition’s role in
the development of democracy, the PACE President Mevlut CavuÅ~_oglu
said that he had visited Armenia to discuss issues on Armenia’s
undertaken fulfillments. According to him, there are problems in
Armenia, which need to be reformed. In that respect he indicated the
importance of the improvement of the RA Electoral Code, police and
judicial-legal systems, the issues on the plurality, etc.
Welcoming the guest the Head of the NA Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan
noticed that the faction accepted with regret the circumstance that the
previously planned official visit of the PACE President was replaced
by the working visit, which was conditioned by the wish of not sharing
the Armenian nation’s April tragedy. Styopa Safaryan noticed that
irrespective of the circumstance Turkey accepted the fact of the
Armenian Genocide, the PACE President could merely share as a human
the sorrow of the Armenian nation for the innocent victims. Styopa
Safaryan handed the message of the Heritage faction to the PACE
President in connection with the issue.
The members of the Heritage faction also touched upon issues on the
settlement of the Armenian-Turkish relations and the NKR problem. They
noticed that respecting any opinion they consider unacceptable such
announcements of the PACE President which are inclined to the fact of
the Armenian Genocide and it is also announced that the Republic of
Armenia subjected to aggression the Republic of Azerbaijan and some
of their territories are under its control. It was also noted that
the faction considered unacceptable the creation of the sub-committee
in the CoE, which should be involved by the settlement of the NKR
problem, according to the information, and the PACE President Mevlut
CavuÅ~_oglu expressed wish to lead it.
Touching upon the issues raised by the Heritage faction the PACE
President noticed that the initiative of creating the sub-committee
is not his and it was on the PACE agenda before he was elected in
the post of the PACE President.
Referring to the issue of the normalization of the Armenian-Turkish
relations the PACE President noticed that he was for the immediate
opening of the borders and called on the parliaments of the two
countries to ratify the protocols.