
Published on April 04, 2008
EUROPEAN DISPATCH: AGO GROUP BRINGS IN PROPOSALS TO DEFUSE TENSIONS
- Armenia’s parliament is set to consider proposals advanced by a Council of Europe delegation on ways to end the country’s current political crisis in the aftermath of the post-election developments. Such an arrangement was made between Armenia’s leaders and the so-called Ago Group of the Strasbourg-based organization’s Committee of Ministers entrusted with monitoring Armenia’s compliance with commitments to the Council of Europe. Per Sjogren, head of the Ago Group and Ambassador of Sweden to the Council of Europe, presented during a press conference in Yerevan on Monday the six points of the proposals, saying that “to some of them Armenia’s leadership had already provided a positive response.” However, the Swedish diplomat who led the delegation on its Armenia visit did not specifically name those points. The proposals include: • Ensuring the rights of detainees to see family; • Supporting the release of all people detained for political activities; • Solidarity with the demand for a start of a national investigation of the March 1 events with participation of foreign experts; • Revising amendments to the law “On Holding Rallies, Meetings, Marches and Demonstrations” with proposals of the Venice Commission considered; • Need to start a national dialogue. The head of the delegation emphasized that the investigation of the March 1 clashes in Yerevan between protesters and riot police that left at least eight people dead was an “internal state responsibility.” It is a different matter, he added, that “the country’s authorities may involve international experts in the investigation.” Sjogren also confirmed the delegation’s meeting with Armenia’s ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the latter’s house during which they had a chance to listen to Ter-Petrosyan’s version of the events. The former president, according to his spokesman, “reaffirmed his commitment to the proposals made by the European Union presidency.” Armenia’s Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian, also attending yesterday’s press conference, described the Ago Group’s proposals as a genuine effort aimed at finding a way out of the current situation. “But only discussion will show what the practical application of these proposals is,” he added. Armenia’s law enforcement deny any of the more than a hundred oppositionists currently kept in custody were arrested for their political views and the authorities defend the amendments moved into the law on assemblies in the wake of the March 1 disturbances as those in line with the freedom of assembly norms enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights.

- Aris Ghazinyan
Headlines for April 04, 2008
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Armenia’s parliament is set to consider proposals advanced by a Council of Europe delegation on ways to end the country’s current political crisis in the aftermath of the post-election developments. ...LET THE LEGAL BATTLE BEGIN: 13 COMMITTED FOR TRIAL, SOME OF THE REST GO ON HUNGER-STRIKE
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Today in Armenian history- 1820 Birth of Catholicos Mkrtich Khrimyan "Hairik" in Van (Western Armenia). He died in 1907.
- 1915 Death of Arshak Vramian, a representative of the Central Committee of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party.
- 1920 Genocide of the Armenians in Sooshee (Gharabagh).
- 1922 Death of Leopold Favri, benefactor and Swiss-Armenian armenologist. He supported orphanages in the Armenian provinces.
- 1945 Death of Vahan Tekeyan, writer, speaker, and public figure. He was born in 1878.
- 1957 Death of actor Ashot Shaghatoonee. He was born in 1882.
- 1995 Garegin I elected Catholicos of the Armenian Church. He became the 131st Spiritual Leader of Armenian Holy Apostolic Church.
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