On April 23 Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, received Mr. Charles Lonsdale, the newly appointed Ambassador of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Armenia
Welcoming the Ambassador, Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly, qualified the moment of his visit interesting and characterized with difficulties and expressed hope that the difficulties will be overcome gradually and the interests will dominate. The President of the National Assembly also assured that a new quality of the Armenian-British relations will be recorded as a result of the new Ambassador’s activity, in particular, the inter-parliamentary relations will be activated.
At the request of Mr. Charles Lonsdale, the newly appointed Ambassador of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Mr. Tigran Torosyan touched upon the results of the debates of the experts of the Venice Commission and OSCE/ODIHR related to the adopted amendments to the RA Law On Conducting Meetings, Assemblies, Rallies and Demonstrations on March 17, 2008. At the request of the Ambassador the President of the National Assembly also touched upon the proposal of setting up a parliamentary committee on investigation of the events of March 1st . It was noted that the RA Law on Rules of Procedure enables to set up an ad-hoc committee at any time, aiming to present an opinion related to certain events. During the past period there were good, as well as bad examples of activity of such committees. In this case the President of the National Assembly highlighted the decision of the problems and goals of the committee, which will make clear which version will be more productive for such investigation. Mr. Tigran Torosyan also touched upon the proposal to maintain the right of the Defender of Human Rights of the Republic of Armenia to hold an investigation, considering the proposal unproductive as even without it the Defender of Human Rights had his problems, and the solution of which was very important. Mr. Tigran Torosyan did not exclude the version of setting up an ad-hoc committee, considering necessary the issue to be discussed with the political forces and hear their views. It was also noted that the ad-hoc committee, having only public control function cannot deal with the activity of the law enforcement bodies.
During the meeting both sides highlighted the further expansion of inter-parliamentary cooperation, an agreement was reached to develop and jointly discuss a certain programme.
