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Armenia is ready to cooperate with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Venice Commission on future reforms, said Edmon Marukyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, in his remarks at the discussion on Armenia’s snap parliamentary elections at the assembly’s winter session on Monday.

“Maybe I am rushing things, but I believe it is time to start discussions on changing the post-accession monitoring procedure for Armenia to a post-monitoring dialogue. We believe that democratic developments in Armenia make it eligible to request such a change and to start that dialogue and cooperate with the Council of Europe on future reforms,” he said.

The Armenian lawmaker also responded to the Azerbaijani delegates’ speeches on the early elections and Armenia’s former authorities, stressing Azerbaijani delegates should be the last ones to speak about ‘criminal regimes’.

“Right now, there are mass protests in Azerbaijan, with people demanding the release of political prisoners, whose rights and freedoms are restricted in the most disgraceful way. Azerbaijan does not follow judgments from the European Court of Human Rights on political prisoners but its delegates talk about the democratisation of Armenia, which is funny.

“There is no state of rest for democracy; it is either promoted or it regresses. I am very happy that democracy in Armenia is sustainably developing. Nevertheless, it is ridiculous to listen to allegations from Azerbaijan, a country with serious shortcomings in the fields of democracy and, more importantly, human rights and freedoms. I hope that everybody here understands that the aim of these provocative statements is to deviate from the general discussion of the agenda items of this plenary session, including the situation of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. In any case, on behalf of the Armenian delegation, I say that we are glad to see how closely our Azerbaijani colleagues follow democratic developments in Armenia. We hope that they will learn from us how democracy is done. I advise them to engage in their own democracy. I wish them a velvet revolution as soon as possible, for their own goodness,” Marukyan said.

Speaking at the discussion, another member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Naira Zohrabyan stressed it is possible for Armenia to become an exemplar for the world, showing that it is possible to put in place an innovative environment that makes it possible for innovative organisations to crop up and become the engines of the new economy.

“A few days ago, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, tried once again to threaten Armenia, declaring that he would isolate Armenia from participation in all regional projects. I continue to be optimistic, and I hope that such declarations will not be left without any response from our organisation or other international organisations or from the framework of the Minsk Group of the OSCE. Armenia must be given an exceptional role in the region. We are prepared to establish economic and political relations of a new quality with our colleagues, in for our democracy and our development to succeed,” the MP said.