On April 17 members of the Armenian Delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) Zaruhi Postanjyan, Levon Zurabyan, Naira Zohrabyan, Arpine Hovhannisyan and Naira Karapetyan headed by Davit Harutyunyan met with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland.

The Head of the Armenian Parliamentary Delegation Davit Harutyunyan considered the visit of the CoE Secretary-General to Armenia to be important and historical on the eve of passing the presidency in the CoE Committee of Ministers to Armenia.

Thorbjørn Jagland discussed with the parliamentary powers the priorities of the upcoming Armenian presidency, noting that Armenia has a responsible and serious attitude towards its presidency. The CoE representative also presented the process of reforms initiated by them, mainly aimed at the improvement of monitoring process and at ensuring the equality between the 47 CoE member countries. The Secretary General also hoped for the closer cooperation with Armenia, assuring there were enough bases for it: the Action Plan of the upcoming years, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding giving a new status to the CoE Office in Yerevan has been signed between the CoE and the RA.

The leader of the ANC faction Levon Zurabyan shared his concerns regarding the democracy process and the quality of election, talked about the failure of disclosing March 1, 2, 2008 cases and restrictions of freedom of speech. The Secretary of the Prosperous Armenia Party faction Naira Zohrabyan has raised the issue of her application to the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights which hasn't received a response yet. The MP has already sent facts on campaigning against Armenians in Azerbaijan at state level in the textbooks one and a half year ago. The Secretary of the Heritage faction Zaruhi Postanjyan expressed her disagreement on the official results of the presidential elections, documenting the necessity of amending the Electoral Code.

The RPA deputy Davit Harutyunyan has noted that Armenia’s progress before the previous visit of the CoE Secretary General is obvious, the situation of 2010 and the current situation are incompatible. He has noted that though his party occupies the majority of seats in the Parliament (53%); the opposition has rather big presence and powers in the legislative body. Davit Harutyunyan deemed this to be a new political quality. He has also said that by the end of this year it is necessary to make amendments in the Electoral Code, discussing all the provisions and recommendations with the experts of the Venice Commission.

On behalf of the Armenian Delegation to PACE Davit Harutyunyan expressed willingness to support the implementation of the CoE reforms, as well as Armenia’s effective presidency in the CoE Committee of Ministers.