PACE CO-RAPPORTEURS MAKE MONITORING VISIT TO ARMENIA

January 13, Baku (AzerTAc). Georges Colombier (France, EPP/CD) and John Prescott
(United Kingdom, SOC), co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe (PACE) on the monitoring of obligations and commitments by Armenia, will
go to Yerevan from 14 to 16 January 2009, for a follow-up visit in connection with
the implementation of PACE Resolutions 1609 (2008) and 1620 (2008) on the
functioning of democratic institutions in Armenia.

The co-rapporteurs expect to meet the President of the Republic, the Speaker of the
National Assembly, the leader of the Armenian delegation to PACE, the Chair of the
parliamentary committee set up in the wake of the events on 1 and 2 March 2008 and
the committee of experts responsible for establishing the facts regarding these
events, as well as the General Prosecutor. Their report is due to be debated during
the Assembly plenary session, on 29 January.
Declaring it “unacceptable” that persons could be charged and deprived of their
liberty for political motivation in Armenia in relation to the events of 1 and 2
March 2008, in its meeting on December 17, 2008 the Monitoring Committee of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recommended suspending the
voting rights of Armenia’s eight-member delegation to the Assembly until the
authorities “have clearly demonstrated their political will to resolve this issue.”
The committee then decided to send the co-rapporteurs to the country in January
2009, with a view to reporting back to the Committee on the first day of the January
2009 part-session on any progress with respect to the release of these persons.
In two earlier resolutions, the Assembly had made several demands following the
post-electoral violence of March 2008, including the holding of an independent,
transparent and credible inquiry into what happened, and the release of persons
detained on “seemingly artificial and politically motivated charges” in connection
with those events.
The parliamentarians said that “notwithstanding positive developments in some areas”
the limited progress with regard to the release of the above mentioned persons meant
the Armenian delegation should be deprived of its vote, if no further progress is
reached in this request before the January 2009 PACE plenary session.
The Assembly is due to decide on the matter on Thursday 29 January during its
forthcoming Winter plenary Session (26 – 30 January 2009).
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