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On January 29 at the press conference held in the RA National Assembly the Head of the RA NA Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Davit Harutyunyan, members of the delegation Arpine Hovhannisyan and Naira Karapetyan summed up the results of the works of the first part of the PACE 2013 Session, which was held in Strasbourg on January 21-25.

Davit Harutyunyan said that the former member of the PACE Armenian Delegation, the NA Vice President Hermine Naghdalyan was granted PACE medal and title of honorary member, and the Head of the Delegation Davit Harutyunyan had been elected First Deputy Chairman of the Committee on PACE Statute and Inviolability Issues.

Vahe Hovhannisyan, member of the delegation, delivered a speech on the issue: “Georgia and Russia: the humanitarian situation in the conflict- and war-affected areas.” He has referred upon the humanitarian problems occurred as a consequence of conflict, in that context he has touched upon the issue of re-operating of the railway passing through Abkhazia, which hasn’t been functioning for already 20 years. He has underlined that the functoning of the railway connecting Armenia, Georgia and Russia will contribute to the settlement of the political, economic and humanitarian problems.

The reports – “T he honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan” and “The follow-up to the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan” have been discussed, and the first one has been adopted.

As Davit Harutyunyan said, the Committees on Monitoring and Legal Affairs have respectively elaborated reports. The members of the Armenian Delegation had four speeches on the report “T he honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan.” and presented the stances of the Delegation on it. The Head of the RA NA Delegation has touched upon the material prepared by two reporters of the Committee on Monitoring, where obviously the use of the Azerbaijani campaign machine has been felt. Davit Harutyunyan noticed that they had deliberately distorted the name of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, trying to create an impression that the problem referred to the territorial dispute connected with Nagorno Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As the report lacked recommendations of the Armenian side, the members of the RA NA Delegation have presented a special opinion, which has been attached to the report as an appendix to it.

Making reference to the reports submitted by Azerbaijan’s civil society, the member of the Delegation Naira Zohrabyan has noted that the report presented by the PACE co-authors does not reflect the Azerbaijani reality.

The member of the Delegation Armen Rustamyan in his speech referred to the mistakes in the report and the threats sounded by the Azerbaijani side in connection with re-functioning of Stepanakert Airport. Armen Rustmayan has also talked about the issues of political prisoners.

Arpine Hovhannisyan noted that her speech also related to the report “T he honouring of obligations and commitments by Azerbaijan.” She noticed that the co-rapporteurs had anyhow touched upon neither the Safarov scandalous case, which had been also discussed and strictly condemned in the PACE, nor the reports of the European Committee against Racism and Intolerance, where it speaks about dissemination of Armenophobia.

Davit Harutyunyan informed them that other issues had also been discussed.

The members of the Delegation answered the questions concerning the journalists.