On June 11, Chairman of the Armenian National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan delivered a speech on rights and obligations of opposition in a democratic parliament at the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament in Limassol, Cyprus.

Abrahamyan said that currently the role of opposition is rather important for the development of parliamentarianism and strengthening of democracy in the country. The presence of opposition in the Armenian parliament contributes to formation of a relevant working atmosphere through mechanisms of suppression and counterbalance.

According to Abrahamyan, opposition’s necessity is conditioned not only by the level of country’s development, but also by opposition’s competitiveness as a political unit. “Everyone is aware of the fact that parliamentary opposition’s basic role in democratic processes is the suggestion of alternative decisions having constructive and realistic basis,” the Speaker said, attaching importance to constructive opposition.

Abrahamyan noted that the Armenian parliament demonstrates in practice its adherence to democratic principles and European system of values. “This is proved by the adopted laws and process of reforms after Armenia’s membership in the Council of Europe,” he said.

The Armenian Speaker said that the legislative fixation of rights and obligations of opposition is an important factor for formation of a political field, as well as implementation of political struggle through civilized methods. “This conference should reflect our ideas about democracy. However, in my opinion, it would have been interesting to organize a conference only for opposition representatives to obtain a comprehensive picture. And if estimations of the two conferences coincide, we would have been able to fix that democracy is on an appropriate level in our countries,” said Abrahamyan.

On June 11, Mr. Abrahamyan is expected to meet with the parliament speakers of Cyprus, Malta, Sweden, Croatia, as well as PACE President Mevlut Cavusoglu, the RA NA press service reported.