Currently Armenia has no independent and free juridical system

PanARMENIAN.Net - The year of 2009 was a year of conquering the political crisis in Armenia that occurred in the country after the events of March 1, 2008. This view was expressed by Naira Zohrabyan, member of the party "Prosperous Armenia" that forms part of the coalition government. She noted that "Joint efforts of coalition and opposition forces enabled Armenian authorities to overcome the political crisis" and optimistically declared that "Armenia can achieve political and economic stability in 2010." Naira Zohrabyan also positively assessed the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement and noted that the settlement of the Karabakh conflict has moved to a new stage.

Not so optimistic about the prospects for Karabakh conflict settlement is the National Neoconservative Movement which believes that Turkey uses the method of blackmail to resolve the Karabakh issue in favor of Azerbaijan. Sending an open letter to the Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic Presidents and the Foreign Ministers of both countries, the Student Union of the National Neoconservative Movement, Student Union "Nikol Aghbalyan" of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun and Student-Youth Union "Hayk" of the Heritage Party demanded that the authorities of Armenia and the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic carry out active work towards populating the liberated territories of Artsakh, by creating infra-structures, economic development potentials and tax subsidies for local residents.

Traditionally criticizing the authorities on the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun reiterated that Armenia has become hostage to the Turkish model of normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. ARFD realizes that in a certain way Yerevan has strengthened its position in the negotiations. Nevertheless, ARF continues to believe that if ratified in the current form, the Protocol would be beneficial only to Turkey.

The ARFD also assessed the work done by the parliamentary ad-hoc commission studying the events of March 1-2, calling it effective. "The Committee's provided a balanced conclusion to serve as a further step towards positive reforms. However, at the same time March events can't be considered a turned page until all proposals of the committee are implemented," declared ARF Dashnaktsutyun parliamentary group leader Vahan Hovhannisyan.

Tuesday, December 22, another political party, the "Heritage" summed up its activity of the passing year. Secretary Larisa Alaverdyan declared that the party had stayed true to its principles. She especially noted party's activity aimed at international recognition of Karabakh. The press secretary also highly appreciated her party's firm stance on the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. She noted that the party has consistently opposed the signing of the Protocols, stressing that "Heritage" would continue its activity in this direction even if the Protocols were ratified.

Referring to the events of March 1-2, 2008, Alaverdyan criticized some representatives of the Republican Party of Armenia, who consider that the March 1page is already turned. "Heritage" will consider the case imminent until the murderers are found and convicted.

The year was also summed up by rarely speaking at press conferences National Security Council Secretary Artur Bagdasaryan, who positively assessed the NSC activity for 2009, noting that during the year, the 2009-2012 program on combating drug addiction and illegal drug circulation in Armenia, as well as religious security issues, construction of Iran-Armenia railway and North-West highway were discussed, approved and later signed by the RA President. "Special attention was paid to the constriction of a new nuclear energy unit that is of strategic importance," noted the NSC secretary. With regard to foreign security issues, Mr. Baghdasaryan stressed the importance of the on-going process of developing Armenia-Iran and Armenia-Turkey relations, the decision on creating CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Forces, as well as Armenia-CSTO, Armenia-NATO and Armenia-EU cooperation programs.

On Wednesday, the Armenian National Congress blamed the ARF Dashnaktsutyun for collusion with the authorities on the ratification of the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. ANC came to this conclusion based on the information that representatives of the ARF Armen Rustamyan, Hrant Margaryan and Vahan Hovhannisyan met with Chairman of the Constitutional Court of Armenia Gagik Harutyunyan.

The Armenian National Congress also referred to the events of March 1-2, 2008, accusing the ad-hoc parliamentary commission of distorting facts. The Congress again proposed that independent experts from abroad join the fact-finding process, which would make the commission's work more open and fair.

On the request of PanARMENIAN.Net commenting on the statement made by the PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteurs on the conclusions of the ad-hoc parliamentary commission studying the events of March, NA Vice-Speaker Samvel Nikoyan stressed that the commission primarily works for the Armenian people and not for PACE members.

On Wednesday, political scientist Alexander Markarov expressed the opinion that Armenian opposition suffers new losses against the background of the authorities' consolidation. "Following the 2008 political developments in Armenia, authorities have adopted a consolidation policy, while the opposition has been giving up active struggle," Markarov believes. "We shouldn't be expecting any serious activity of the opposition as so far pro-opposition forces have formed coalition against rather than in favor of something," Markarov said.

Thursday, December 24, Armenian Parliamentary Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan made a statement stressing that the RA NA would not discuss the protocols on normalization of relations with Turkey until they were ratified by Turkish Parliament. "Armenian National Assembly will not discuss this issue until the Turkish parliament ratifies the Protocols," the Speaker declared at a press conference in Yerevan. Abrahamian also clearly commented on the statements made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu about the relationship between the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. "Attempts to link the Karabakh conflict settlement process to the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations are ungrounded and unacceptable. My attitude towards any such statement is negative, since at the beginning of negotiations Armenia and Turkey agreed to normalize relations without preconditions," Abrahamyan stressed.

Referring to the work of Parliament, the Speaker presented some figures, which in his view, evaluate the work of the RA National Assembly as positive. According to Hovik Abrahamyan, during his presidency, Parliament adopted 327 laws, received and responded to 5562 letters from Armenian citizens. He highlighted the importance of raising the political power and authority both among the public and in public administration.

At the end of the week Ombudsman Armen Harutyunyan assessed PACE rapporteurs Prescott and Columbier's statement, posted on the official website of PACE. He expressed surprise at the aroused excitement, saying, in his view, the publication was not a "discovery". He also addressed the opposition and the Armenian authorities with the request not to talk about "closing or opening the page of 1 March 2008". This approach is unacceptable, according to him.

The Ombudsman also gave a negative assessment to the juridical system in Armenia and declared that based on the research it can be concluded that the right to fair legal procedure is not guaranteed in Armenia. "My observations have shown that if the initiated criminal cases reached Strasbourg, we would fail in 90% of them," Harutyunyan said. "Despite the fact that positive developments have been observed in this direction in 2009, currently Armenia has no independent and free juridical system," declared the Ombudsman.