Armenian MPs from the opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem blocs on Wednesday staged a protest outside the Armenia Marriott Hotel in downtown Yerevan, which is hosting a two-day forum on judicial reforms.
Opposition lawmakers have not been invited to the forum attended by representatives of international organizations and Armenia’s judicial authorities.
“We and our colleagues expressed a desire to attend the event to present the real situation of the judiciary in Armenia, to speak about persons arrested for their political views, police violence as well as the silence of judicial authorities about them, however opposition MPs were denied access to it,” Hayastan MP Hayk Mamijanyan told reporters during the protest.
"The Constitutional Court officials who have organized the event probably don't read PACE reports and don't listen to Ararat Mirzoyan, who claims that our country is a ‘bastion of democracy’," he added.
Mamijanyan unveiled plans to inform the Council of Europe headquarters about the decision to bar opposition MPs from the conference.
Earlier on May 20, opposition MPs were not invited to the Armenian Forum for Democracy attended by Armenian government officials, pro-government deputies, civic activists and Western diplomats.
