Head Of PACE Visits Tsitsernakaberd

[Tongue]

Head Of PACE Visits Tsitsernakaberd

Yerevan, August 18, Armenpress: The head of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Rene van der Linden paid a two-day visit to Armenia and met today with the ambassadors of the Council of Europe member countries and representatives of NGOs.
Today he also visited Tsitsernakaberd and paid respect to the memory of the victims of the Armenian genocide. After walking around the museum of the genocide he wrote his impressions in the memory book of the museum. "In 1915 Armenians suffered a lot. It is a great pain. We must hope that the history will not be repeated. It is possible to pray for everybody. I am sure that PACE will be useful for Armenia in its strive to live within stabile and rich Europe," said he. 
On August 19 Rene van der Linden will meet with the NA delegation to PACE, members of permanent commission of foreign relations, NA political forces as well as will have a face-to-face meeting with the NA Speaker Arthur Baghdasarian. On the same day he will meet with Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan Oskanian, Justice Minister David Harutyunian and Armenian President Robert Kocharian.

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[Gavur]

Baku Not Sparing Efforts To Expel Armenia From Ce

BAKU NOT SPARING EFFORTS TO EXPEL ARMENIA FROM CE

Pan Armenian
26.01.2006 20:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Member of the PACE Azeri delegation Rafael Huseynov
presented a document titled Inadmissibility of Membership of Armenia
an aggressor country, whose actions run counter to Council of Europe
fundamental principles and basic criteria in the PACE. The CE Committee
of Ministers will discuss the document. Ambassadors of all 46 CE member
states participate in the debate according the regulations. After the
discussion the document will be made public along with the Ministers'
decision, reported APA agency.

A move like that aims exclusively at expelling Armenia from the CE. At
that it should be noted that the document in question was presented
literally the next day after PACE approved the mandate of the Azeri
delegation. Upon approval of the mandate the Azeri delegation remained
PACE plenipotentiary member. Thus, Baku is trying to divert attention
from its problems in the PACE.

[Gavur]

Azerbaijan Avoided EC Sanctions With Great Difficulty

Strasburg decided to discuss the deprivation of Azeri delegation’s mandate after the upcoming parliamentary by-elections in May.
27.01.2006 GMT+04:00




/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The proposal of the monitoring committee on depriving Azerbaijan of the vote was conditioned by widespread falsifications during November parliamentary elections. Though the draft resolution was not approved, the extremely negative background discrediting Azerbaijan remained. In Baku they supposed that PACE will have claims on Armenia too, in connection with violations during the referendum. But the report on the referendum on the session of the Council of Ministers was just taken into account and sanctions against Armenia were simply out of question. This is what made Baku so nervous. Azeris counted on the notorious parity principle which is applied so often by PACE leaders. It looks like this time Strasburg decided not to make a muddle of things and to reward everyone according to their deserts. In order to compensate for the loss, the Azeri delegation decided to employ the foolish plan of proposing Armenia’s exclusion from the Council of Europe.

It should be noted that Rafael Huseynov’s initiative dictated by the presidential administration of Azerbaijan has no future. As a matter of fact, Azerbaijan did not hope for any prospects. Their main aim was just to do harm to Armenians and to grate on their nerves. However, Yerevan has already got used to such foolish things. But in Strasburg many are obviously annoyed with the fact that the Azeri delegation started its activities in PACE with such a cheap propagandistic trick. Meanwhile, EC leaders wanted to believe that the new messengers of the Azeri parliament would be more constructive than their predecessors. As it turns out, their hopes have not come true…

Azerbaijan managed to defend the right of vote in the European Council with great difficulty. The situation was much more than serious and Baku was ready for the worst – non-recognition of the mandate. The plan of demarche in case of non-recognition was already prepared by the president’s administration. The Azeri delegation was ordered to demonstratively leave the session hall. The speeches of the monitoring committee’s co-reporters on Azerbaijan Andreas Gross, Anders Herkel and the head of election observers group Leo Platvoyet was supported also by other deputies who insisted on the necessity of applying sanctions against Baku. Azerbaijan was only defended by Turkey, Germany and Great Britain. And though it was decided to refrain from applying sanctions, it should be taken into account that the 37 votes for the deprivation of Azerbaijan’s right to vote is almost 10 times as much the number of members of Armenian delegation. Thus, the argument of Azeri propagandists that the initiative of applying sanctions against Azerbaijan belongs to Armenia should not be taken seriously.

Huseynov’s initiative of excluding Armenia from PACE is not the only unpleasant surprise prepared by the Azeri delegation. Anti-Armenian propaganda was applied by Azerbaijan also during the discussions on secret CIA prisons and the crimes of communist regime. However, their success is quite doubtful. Hoping to achieve the mentioning of “deportation of Azeris from Armenia” in the resolution condemning the crimes of communist regimes, they actually disposed the members of Russian delegations against themselves. The representatives of Russian delegation were ready to take revenge by supporting the resolution of non-recognition of Azeri delegation’s mandate.

Anti-Armenian propaganda in the context of discussions around CIA secret prisons looks even more foolish. Azeris say that on the territory of Karabakh there are secret concentration camps and bases for training terrorists. Anyway, the story of secret prisons is fraught with problems first of all for Azerbaijan, since there are at least two well-known facts, which prove that American planes with prisoners have landed in Baku with the consent of Azeri rulers. Known are even the dates – November 15 and October 30, 2005. Baku realizes the seriousness of the situation. “If secret CIA prisons are found in our country, it will entail discussions in PACE which will in their turn result in recommendations to apply sanctions against Azerbaijan”, said the director of Human Rights Center of Azerbaijan Eldar Zeynalov in his interview to Baku journalists.

Thus very near is the day when the question of applying sanctions against Azerbaijan will again be put on the PACE agenda. At that time Azerbaijan will have much less chances to slip out.
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department
! Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to «PanARMENIAN.Net».

[Gavur]

AZERBAIJAN WAS NOT IN AN ENVIABLE SITUATION

According to the head of the RA delegation to PACE Tigran Torosyan, the situation of the Azeri delegation was not enviable during the PACE January session, “For the last two years this was the first case of similar punishment”.

Let us remind you that because of the violations during the elections in Azerbaijan, the Azeri delegates faced the danger of being deprived of the right to vote in PACE until the May elections. After the discussions they were punished for three days. “It would be better to deprive them of the right until May, than to reduce the date to three days as a result of the discussions”, head of the RA delegation to PACE Tigran Torosyan announced during a press conference.

According to him, the visit of the Azeri Foreign Minister Mamedyarov contributed to this. Even the Azeri President asked the CE to cancel the punishment. Nevertheless, it was exercised.http://www.a1plus.am/eng/?go=issue&id=35396

[Gavur]

Baku Uses PACE as Platform for Invented Accusations against Armenia



29.06.2006 12:59 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Speaker, head of PACE Armenian delegation Tigran Torosyan yesterday met with CE Sec. Gen. Terry Davis, reports the Press Service of the NA of Armenia. During the meeting Torosyan remarked that after the constitutional referendum changes should be introduced to over 60 laws to make them comply with the Constitution of Armenia: changes are already made in 10 out of these. In his words, during the summer active work will be carried out for the Electoral Code to be adopted this autumn. The Speaker noted the importance of forming of atmosphere of solidarity with political forces.

In his turn Mr. Davis congratulated Torosyan over election as Parliament Chair and noted the importance of the Parliament's work during the next year from the point of view of democratic development of Armenia, especially the coming election in 2007.

The interlocutors also noted the issue of Azeri delegation's aggressive policy at the PACE. As Torosyan noted, Azeri MPs use PACE as platform to spread senseless and false information, as well as invented accusations against Armenia. Specifically, in this case during discussion of all issues Azeri delegation members raised the issue of fires in the Nagorno Karabakh security zone. Torosyan presented the true state of affairs to the CE Sec. Gen. The Armenian Speaker underscored that while the NKR leadership addressed the Office of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, asking for monitoring to refute the alleged accusations, Azeris organized a political show in Strasbourg. In the situation it is not possible to make Armenian MPs refrain from statements in response. Torosyan underscored that spreading invented accusations runs counter to CE principles and suggested taking measures to fix the situation. Terry Davis agreed that the problem is serious and promised to take respective steps.