WILL THE OPPOSITION APPEAL TO EUROPEAN COURT?

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Armenia's authorities and opposition have chosen various ways to represent Armenia in the Council of Armenia.

“Official Yerevan attempts to pass a “beneficial” resolution in the Council of Europe not to degrade Armenia. They want to create an impression that nothing has happened in Armenia. It is but a trivial problem. Time will cure the wounds. Everything is passable. They hoped to overcome the crisis through negotiations-by giving a few portfolios to oppositionists and offering a post to Levon Ter-Petrossian,” HHSh member Hovhannes Igitian told A1+ in Strasbourg.

Note, Hovhannes Igitian headed Armenia's first delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

He says the Armenian authorities fear the phrase of “political prisoner” and they introduce those detained for their political dissent as “bandits and hooligans.”

Hovhannes Igitian thinks their strategy greatly differs from that of the authorities and is aimed at solving major problems in Armenia. “We criticize the Armenian authorities and wish Armenia were a democratic country.”

Hovhannes Igitian highlights CoE assessments to the recent events in Armenia. He says the detainees must be called political prisoners at least to instill hope of release in them.

Under the PACE draft resolution Armenia is to conduct an impartial investigation of the March 1 events, reconsider the law on marches and rallies and release the political prisoners by June, 2008.

The report says in part, “for their part, all opposition forces should recognise the authority of the Constitutional Court’s decision with regard to the outcome of the Presidential election. This should not be interpreted as the obligation to accept the merits of this decision. All electoral contestants have the right to challenge the court’s decision by the legal means available to them, including the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Will the opposition appeal to the European Court of Human Rights?

"Provided that Armenia fulfills CoE commitments and obligations the country will solve its interior problems. If not, there are numerous legal means, including the EC, to solve the matter," says Hovhannes Igitian.

Note, the report underlines that in the result of the March 1 events Levon Ter-Petrossian was de facto taken under house arrest.

Karine Asatrian

Strasbourg