HOVANNISIAN AND HERITAGE MPs WELCOME AGO GROUP
Support A1+!Yerevan—Today the Heritage Party's parliamentarians Larisa Alaverdian, Anahit Bakhshian, Zaruhi Postanjian, Armen Martirosian, Vardan Khachatrian, and Stepan Safarian met at the National Assembly with the Ago Monitoring Group of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers. The visiting delegation was led by Sweden's Ambassador to the Council of Europe Per Sjögren. The Heritage MPs presented their approaches onto the current post-election state of affairs in Armenia and suggested some possible avenues for resolving this tense situation.
The parties also discussed the Constitutional Court's "state of emergency" judgment on the presidential elections, the imperative for an impartial and thorough investigation of the tragic events of March 1, the need for reforms in the country's legislative field which currently curtails the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms, and the duty to defend the rights of those who are imprisoned because of their political views. The Heritage parliamentarians also underscored those courses of action which must be taken in order to settle the present legal-political crisis, as manifested in the party's recent public statements.
The same day, Raffi K. Hovannisian, leader of Heritage's parliamentary group and member of Armenia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), also held an official meeting with the Ago Group. The interlocutors emphasized the necessity for Armenia to carry out its commitments to the Council of Europe and, more specifically, to eliminate the legal and political arbitrariness applied against its own citizens on the way to delivering the nation to a truly democratic future.
Raffi Hovannisian also received Bulgarian Ambassador Todor Marinov Staykov at the National Assembly and, later in the day, conducted a separate meeting with the United Kingdom's Ambassador Charles Lonsdale.
