In the sessions of 2006 Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) it is envisaged to discuss three reports, concerning Armenia, informed Tigran Torosyan, the NA Vice Speaker, Head of the Armenian delegation in PACE. On October 11 in the parliament he detailed the journalists on the activities of the last session of this year of the Assembly, taken place in Strasbourg.

There wasn’t any issue related to Armenia on the agenda of the session. Among other countries Armenia has been mentioned within the framework of discussion of the programme “Wider Europe: New Neighborhood,” the general approaches of the programme were submitted. The Armenian delegation, besides the participation in the activities of the session, met in Strasbourg Mr. Wegener, Head of the Ago Monitoring Group of the CE Committee of Ministers, and the heads of delegations of three South Caucasus republics met Rene van der Linden, PACE President. The issues related to the Karabakh conflict were discussed in the committees with participation of 2 members from the Armenian and Azeri delegations and Lord Russell Johnston, Chairman of the Ad-hoc committee on NK.

It is expected, that at January session of 2006 the issue of Armenia’s undertaken responsibilities at the introduction in CE will be discussed. Another report is envisaged to be submitted to the forthcoming session in January or April: it is related to the refugees’ problem of South Caucasus countries. There was an offer to put on the agenda of the Assembly the report on a theme “The Situation of the Missing People in Azerbaijan.” In the result of the debates, it has been considered more expedient to prepare a report on the missing people not only in Azerbaijan, but also in the whole region. As Tigran Torosyan was informed, the Azerbaijani side talks on 5000 missing people, meanwhile there are missing people also from the Armenian side. And in general, the report will enable to find out real picture and present the truthful information. In CE this document will be touched upon later in January or October, 2006.

The constitutional reforms and forthcoming referendum in November will have a great place in the activity of Armenia’s undertaken obligations in CE, said the NA Vice-Speaker.

Rene van der Linden and Mr. Wegener expressed their assistance for succeeding in the activities of amending the Constitution in Armenia. The latter expressed a regret for the opposition’s adopted position during the reforms. They greatly highlight in PACE to the successful end of the reforms, considering it an important step on the way of democracy and European Integration, noted Tigran Torosyan.

During the press conference, Tigran Torosyan also touched upon the further activity of the created Ad-hoc committee on NK. According to the NA Vice Speaker, one of the variants is to stop the activity of the committee by presenting a report on the conflict to OSCE Minsk Group. The committee can also take steps on formation of an atmosphere of tolerance, in excluding war-like statements and activities. But there aren’t mechanisms for these steps, said Mr. Torosyan. It is possible that new problems will be proposed for the solution of the Ad-hoc Committee, i.e. within the OSCE Minsk Group framework promote the conflict settlement through creating a relevant field for the adoption of the possible proposals.

Answering the journalists’ questions, the NA Vice Speaker noted that after the adoption of the constitutional reforms on a referendum within one year (after complying the legislative field with the European standards) Armenia will have an opportunity to leave the monitoring stage. In case of saying no to the constitutional reforms, the negative phenomena in our country will get even more deepened, and 4-5 more years will be required for new reforms, said Tigran Torosyan.