Heritage hopes to be heard in Strasbourg
The opposition Heritage party has voiced concerns over the Council of Europe Parliamentary Committee's (PACE) recent draft resolution on The Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Armenia.
The party has addressed a letter to the PACE Monitoring Committee sharing its concerns over the document. The letter runs as follows:
To: Mr. Dick Marty
Chairperson, PACE Monitoring Committee
Ms. Josette Durrieu
First Vice-Chairperson
Mr. Pedro Agramunt Fond de Mora
Second Vice-Chairperson
Ms. Karin S. Woldseth
Third Vice-Chairperson
PACE Monitoring Committee members
Dear Colleagues,
The Heritage Party has always highly appreciated the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its Monitoring Committee in supporting democracy and human rights in Armenia. We also do realize that no matter how hard Armenia's civil society and democratic opposition work no democratic reforms would be carried out in Armenia without the consistent support of the Council of Europe and its Parliamentary Assembly.
However, the Heritage Party has always encouraged our PACE colleagues to apply the highest European standards towards Armenia: this is the only way to overcome attempts of imitation instead of genuine reforms.
Recently, the Armenian public learned about the draft resolution called "The Functioning of Democratic Institutions in Armenia," prepared by PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs John Prescott and Axel Fischer, to be adopted by the PACE.
While sharing many of the co-rapporteurs' concerns as well as the priorities set for the democratic development of Armenia, such as the conduct of genuinely free and fair elections, preventing the March 2008 events from happening in the future, and the necessity to include all the political forces in the process aimed at alleviating the political tension, the Heritage Party, however, expresses its concerns over several unacceptable and dangerous provisions contained in the draft which cast a shadow upon the entire spirit and the main goal of the document. In this respect, we would like to draw your attention to the following observations:
1. The draft resolution welcomes the "renewed impetus" given by the President of Armenia in investigating the 1 March 2008 deaths and calls for publication of a final-or at least an interim-report before the end of 2011. We still do not believe that the incumbent authorities are going to investigate the March 2008 deaths unless Serzh Sargsyan restores the Fact-finding Group, formed from the experts appointed by the ruling coalition, parliamentary and extra-parliamentary opposition and which, unlike the law-enforcement agencies, had worked effectively, leaving aside the need for engaging international experts in the process, something that has continually been demanded by the opposition, including the Heritage Party. Besides, Provision 11 of the draft, which says that "the Assembly considers that the outcome of the latest general amnesty, the renewed impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition and the ruling coalition meant that the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed" is entirely unacceptable to us. Basic logic dictates that this page can be closed only after those responsible for the 10 deaths are revealed and not as a result of the above-mentioned activities.
2. We voice our concern over the co-rapporteurs' positive assessment of the new election code: the code was drafted in violation of PACE Resolutions 1609 and 1677 and adopted without taking into consideration the key proposals of the parliamentary opposition. What's more, the Assembly calls upon all political forces "to actively contribute to a democratic election process and to refrain from any action or statements that could undermine the public trust in the election process and its outcome." The recent application of the Election Code has already demonstrated that the authorities have chosen the way of jeopardizing the legitimacy of the elections: the transparency of the process is endangered and the public trust undermined by the mere fact that former or new members of all parliamentary political parties except the opposition Heritage party were included in the Central Electoral Commission and the district electoral commissions.
Dear colleagues,
The co-rapporteurs call on the Assembly to "welcome the close and constructive cooperation between the Assembly and the Armenian authorities" that can be considered to be "an example for the development of cooperation in the framework of the Monitoring Procedure of the Assembly." We would like to add that the ignoring of the Armenian opposition forces' opinions by the PACE Monitoring Committee may serve as a perfect example of how the relations between the PACE and the opposition of any country SHOULD NOT be. We hope that that the Assembly will change this negative tradition of ignoring the opposition by the PACE co-rapporteurs and, by taking into account these observations, would make necessary changes in the final version of the resolution on Armenia.
Styopa Safaryan
Leader of the Heritage Party faction in the National Assembly
Zaruhi Postanjyan
Heritage Party representative in the Armenian delegation to PACE
