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On October 14 in RA National Assembly the press conference of the head of RA NA delegation to PACE Davit Harutyunyan, the members of delegation Naira Zohrabyan and Hermine Naghdalyan was held, during which they presented the results of the works of the 4^th part of the PACE 2010 session.

The head of the delegation Davit Harutyunyan said that the opposition members of the delegation also have been invited, who, however, said they had already informed the community about the last works done in the PACE session.

The head of the delegation noted that on the agenda of the 4^th part of PACE session the issues concerning Armenia. RA NA delegation has been more interested in the hearings organized by the Monitoring Committee, which took place on October 5. The hearings took place with new format, where all members of the delegation, as well as the extra-parliamentary opposition representative of Armenia, had an opportunity to introduce his/her message.

Davit Harutyunyan presented his prepared information, which he conventionally divided into five parts. The first part referred to RA Electoral Code and the envisaged programmes related to it. The head of RA NA delegation noted that, according to the assumed obligations, the Electoral Code would be changed at least one year before the elections. Before submitting to the parliament the Code is envisaged to debate with all political forces.

The head of the delegation in his speech also touched upon the issue on police reform.

The third issue, about which Davit Harutyunyan talked, referred to the right of the fair trial. He said that it related to the trials of March 1-2, 2008 cases, which were under monitoring, and the OSCE experts’ group, participating in the trials as observers, presented a report with proposals. In connection with part of proposals, amendments will be initiated in the RA Criminal Procedure Code, which the working group has already prepared, and which are in the phase of debate in RA Government. In connection with the other part of the proposals he noted that another working group had been set up, which was involved in creation of the new Criminal Procedure Code.

At the Monitoring Committee in his speech Davit Harutyunyan also touched upon the problem of the freedom of the assemblies.

The fifth issue referred to the law on RA Television and Radio and the competitions being expected in the nearest future.

Davit Harutyunyan also talked about the meetings, which the delegation had during the session, and other works done. He said in particular that by the proposal of the delegation the visit of the co-rapporteurs to Armenia scheduled in October was postponed. On October 19-21 a forum on democracy will be held in Armenia, and conditioned by the changes of the schedule, the President of the National Assembly applied to the Monitoring Committee, asking to postpone the co-rapporteurs’ envisaging visit because in Armenia they always preferred that the co-rapporteurs would have opportunity to meet with the President of the Republic, the NA President and others. In the Monitoring Committee the issue has been discussed, the Committee came to a conclusion that the Armenian side’s request was reasonable and it was met.

In Davit Harutyunyan’s opinion, a discussion will be held to have a new co-rapporteur instead of Göran Lindblad when the Swedish Parliament will present its new delegation members in PACE.

The Armenian delegation had a meeting with the Azerbaijani delegation. Issues on the creation of the Ad-hoc Committee by 1416 resolution and possible cooperation during PACE works were discussed. In the issue of the Ad-hoc Committee the stance of the delegation has been and remains the same, according to which, if it is created, the it will be absolutely inefficient.

The members of the delegation Naira Zohrabyan and Hermine Naghdalyan also presented the work done in the session. Naira Zohrabyan said that during the session she voiced about different problems, which related to the issues of Nagorno Karabakh, displaced persons, cultural vandalism carried out by the Azerbaijanis in Nakhijevan.

In the Monitoring Committee Mrs Zohrabyan in particular touched upon the Electoral Code, noting the view of the Prosperous Armenia faction, according to which, the conduct of the free and fair elections was emphasized. Naira Zohrabyan also talked about the issue of A1+. She expressed hope that in the competition being held in December the worthy TV companies would win.

The member of the delegation Hermine Naghdalyanin in her word noted that though there were issues, which related to the world economic situation. She said that the reports of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Bank for Economic Cooperation and Development, which prepared Mrs Naghdalyan. The deputy said that in connection with this and other economic issues she presented proposals, in which the European counterparts were interested.

The members of the delegation answered the journalists’ various questions.