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WILL WE PASS THE “EXAM” AT PACE?

Politics


“In the January assembly, Armenia will be in a situation where our European colleagues and the Armenian society will get to see and evaluate first hand the real progress,” told “A1+” member of the Republican Party political council, NA Deputy Edward Sharmazanov as he evaluated the “exam” that awaits Armenia in the PACE January assembly.

“There are issues that concern the administration as well. We all know that Armenia still doesn’t have a perfect judicial system and the other systems are not perfect either. Democracy develops over time. I respect Hammarberg’s opinion aimed not at criticizing the administration, but helping keep our society more vigilant. Nevertheless, I think that it was subjective. The fact remains that there is progress. It is also a fact that the president and the administration have the political will and that has been proved by heads of European organizations and even U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who announced that Armenia is entering the stage of political reforms,” recalls Edward Sharmazanov.

However, Sharmazanov considers the difficulties as objective. “It is hard to implement reforms in a society polarized after the March 1 tragedy, yet the administration somehow managed to reduce the lack of confidence,” says Sharmazanov. According to the Republican Deputy, the March 1 parliamentary commission has justified itself and in fact, it has been able to work rather effectively without the participation of the real opposition.

The deputy stressed the importance of Serzh Sargsyan’s political will to grant amnesty to the three convicts of March 1.

The PACE had clearly demanded quashing the cases instituted by articles 300 and 225 of the Criminal Code. Not only have the cases not been quashed, but trials are soon underway. What do you have to say about that? In response to this, Sharmazanov said:

“I would not like to give my evaluation on that while judicial proceedings are still in progress. We must do everything we can to not sentence political prisoners. Everyone has something to say, but people were arrested for no reason. After all, people were killed.”

We asked Sharmazanov to compare the events in Armenia and Greece.

“The Greek administration announced that the rallies are anti-democratic, while the opposition led by Georgi Papandreu said that it was a struggle for human rights. We saw the contradicting evaluations not only in Armenia, but also all over the world, including EU member Greece. The difference is that the developments in Armenia were pre-electoral and post-election, while in Greece it was a social/student movement.”

There were no marksmen to stop the protest compared to Armenia. In regard to this, Edward Sharmazanov said: “Our Constitution defends human rights and general freedoms, as well as the maintenance of social order. We must draft a mechanism so that those two principles will not contradict one another.”