March 4, 2002 - 23:25 AMT
ARMENIA IS FOR CONCORDANCE OF NATIONAL LEGISLATION ON STRUGGLE AGAINST TERROR
Armenia is for concordance of national legislation in the sphere of struggle against terrorism. Vahan Hovhannisian, Chairman of the defense, internal affairs and national security commission of the Armenian National Assembly, stated it today. In his words, this step is very important from the point of view of providing an unambiguous interpretation of the concept of terrorism and its manifestations. "Otherwise any country can declare its opponents terrorist," - V.Hovhannisian said. At the same time he stressed that the decisions to hold power actions could not be unilateral and should be made within the framework of UN Security Council. In this context V.Hovhannisian noted the decision made by Georgia to invite American military to fight terrorists in Pankisi Gorge "can harbor some danger in itself." E.g. in Hovhannisian's opinion, Azerbaijan may easily declare tomorrow that "the fighters of al Qaeda terrorist organization are on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, somewhere at the border with Nagorno Karabakh." Azeri legislation lets consider struggle for self-determination as terrorism and "if the laws are adapted to the international norms, these items will be brought to naught," - he noted. "In this regard it is not surprising that Azerbaijan refuses to support the idea of concordance of legislation in the sphere of struggle against terror," - V.Hovhannisian said.