PACE MAKES BALANCED ASSESSMENTS

Today, the draft resolution on the activity of the democratic institutions in Armenia will be put to vote by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Three months after adopting the document, PACE will touch upon the issue during its summer session.
In a press-conference convened on April 15, J. Prescott, Head of the PACE observation mission, J. Colombey, Speaker of the PACE Observation Mission, and Thomas Hammerberg, Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, expressed clear-cut and balanced assessments with regard to our country’s compliance with its commitments. They propose civilized methods for our authorities and opposition to overcome the existing situation.
They are based on three main principles:
First: PACE, in the person of John Prescott, Head of its observation mission, reconfirms the international community’s fundamental assessment with regard to the February 19 presidential elections and reiterates that they were “mostly in line with the standards of the Council of Europe.”
Second: The major part of the proposals addressed to Armenia through the PACE Resolution concern the investigation and the negative consequences of the March 1-2 tragic events rather than the February 19 elections.
Third: The PACE assessments and proposals aim to create certain bases of bilateral commitments with the purpose of restoring the civilized relations between the Armenian authorities and opposition.
The latter principle is strictly important for the simple reason that Ter-Petrosyan and his proponents are, by their statements, interviews and publications, making unsuccessful attempts of “confusing” PACE’s sincere concerns and proposals with some “punitive functions” which are being sketched in their bright imagination. And because no such tendencies are to be found in the PACE proposals, they are beginning to condemn the balanced attitude of the European structures, guiding themselves by the logic “our response to Chamberlain”.
It was L. Ter-Petrosyan that laid the foundations of the propaganda which is being actively circulated in the press supporting the Armenian Pan-National Movement. In the interview to the Russian “Novoe Izvestia” newspaper, the ex-President announced that by demanding Armenia’s compliance with its obligations, the Western structures “simultaneously forget about their obligations to Armenia”.
A question arises as to how the Western structures should perform their obligations to the Armenian people, by ignoring the authorities of the state. It turns out that the solution of such puzzle consists in Ter-Petrosyan’s resolution-desire saying “these authorities will not be recognized”. And as we have already mentioned, it contradicts J. Prescott’s assessment regarding the February 19 elections.
It turns out that L. Ter-Petrosyan and his propaganda machine are not actually interested in the democratic ways towards overcoming the situation, as proposed by the PACE Resolution. They only want to achieve the non-recognition of the election results and have new opportunities for destabilizing the internal political situation.
It appears that for some people, PACE is just a “tool” for acceding to power in one’s own country with the help of “foreigners” rather than a means of strengthening democracy.
The Azeri members of the PACE delegation are initiating attempts of “rotating” the same tool from another side, advancing the counteraction of A. Herkel, co-speaker of Azerbaijan in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. Reiterating the contents of the dissatisfaction voiced by the press-supporting the Armenian Pan-National Movement, Azerbaijani co-speakers in the PACE Monitoring Committee S. Seidov, G. Pashaev and others are laughing away the serious proposals discussed in Strasburg with regard to the March 1-2 events.
In such conditions, there obviously emerges a certain convergence of ideas and approaches between the leadership of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Armenian authorities in terms of putting an end to the internal and external speculations of the events that became a tragedy for our country and people and getting Armenia on the path of regular development.
Implementing the proposals in the course of three months, the Armenian authorities may leave their internal and external rivals “offside”.
“HAYOTS ASHKHARH”

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