ANC won’t allow closing chapter on March 2008 events

 September 9, 2011 - 20:05 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian National Congress (ANC) opposition bloc slammed PACE report on March 2008 events, characterizing closing the chapter on tragic events as unacceptable.

“We won’t allow the phrasing used in for PACE statement to enter the minds of the Armenian people,” Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper editor-in-chief Nikol Pashinyan stated at today’s rally.

The outcome of the latest general amnesty in Armenia, the renewed impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition and ruling coalition mean that the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed, said the Monitoring Committee of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE).

In a draft resolution, based on a report by Axel Fischer (Germany, EPP/CD) and John Prescott (United Kingdom, SOC), the committee welcomed the political will demonstrated by “the authorities and indeed all political forces to resolve this issue in line with Council of Europe standards and recommendations”.

According to the committee, the 2008 events and their aftermath have set clear priorities for the democratic development of the country: “the conduct of genuinely democratic parliamentary elections; the creation of a robust democratic and pluralist political environment that has the full trust of the Armenian public; the establishment of an open and pluralist media environment; the reform of the police and the reform of the judiciary with a view to guaranteeing its independence both in law and practice”.

The adopted text welcomes the “close and constructive co-operation” between the Assembly and the Armenian authorities, which it considers to be “an example” for the development of co-operation in the framework of the Monitoring Procedure of the Assembly, PACE said on its website.