“Armenia started a war with the Council of Europe”
"Armenia-CoE relations are periled," Hovhannes Hovhannisyan, former chair of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Council of Europe (PACE) said on July 7.
«It seems as if the parties have started a small war: the Armenian side has expressed its distrust for the PACE President, delegates and co-rapporteurs. But Armenia cannot win this war," Mr. Hovhannisyan said.
Remind that Armenian Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan announced that PACE President's unawareness of June 18 incident at the contact line between Azerbaijani and NKR Armed Forces causes bewilderment and the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE David Harutyunyan blamed PACE Monitoring Committee Co-rapporteur Goran Lindblad for "political immaturity."
Hovhannes Hovhannisyan says the Armenian delegation is partly to blame for the current situation though the main reason is the change of international attitude towards Armenia.
"Membership to the Council of Europe was to ensure democratic values in Armenia and guarantee protection of human rights. In fact, the situation is worse today than it was in 1999 and 2000," Hovhannisyan said. "And the reason for this is that the Armenian side is constantly lying. The CoE Finally got tired of us and demanded to call things by their right names. The structure simply lost confidence in Armenia."
To come out of this mess, Hovhannes Hovhannisyan suggests freezing membership to the structure, changing the Armenian delegates or meeting the CoE commitments.
