NEW RESOLUTION: ARMENIA REMAINS UNDER PACE MONITORING
The Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a new resolution with respect to Armenia. According to the PACE website, Armenia will continue to remain under monitoring as per the newly adopted resolution. This will mean that PACE will keep on observing the post-electoral criminal cases and their developments that relate and stem from the March 1 events.
The resolution is suggestive of applying amnesty for the escaped people, who provided surrender to the authorities by July 31, will be subject to amnesty for the court trials that had been commenced against them.
The resolution, then, calls for the opposition and authorities to initiate an open dialog for the “normalization of the political life”.
http://www.assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/AdoptedText/ta09/ERES1676.htm
Regardless of being responsive to the advancements in the court, police and electoral systems in Armenia, the Monitoring Committee considers it appropriate to still keep Armenia under monitoring.
It should be noted that none of the suggestions put forward by Ms. Zaruhi Postangyan, a member of the Armenian delegation, in her speech before the voting for the resolution took place, were adopted.
As a reminder, in her draft Ms. Postangyan suggested that a provision be added stipulating that the Assembly would call for the Armenian authorities to recompose the expert group of the March 1 events to incorporate independent international experts as well.
The results of the voting were the following: 37 out of 41 delegates voted for, 2 voted against, and the other 2 abstained from voting. One of the abstained delegates was Ms. Zaruhi Postangyan herself.
The adoption of the resolution was followed by MP Hovik Abrahamyan's speech.