The
monitoring commission on Armenian commitments governing by the Committee of Ministers
has mentioned in its 5th current report, which has been asserted during the meeting
of ministers’ representatives on 19 January.This commission is called "Ago’s
group" in Armenia though German ambassador Roland Wegener has headed it since
July of the previous year. Wegener’s group has made the current report by the
results of its visit to Armenia in November 2004. It is mentioned in the first
points of the report that the representatives of CoE Committee of Ministers call
the authority and opposition of Armenia to make efforts to establish democratic
dialog and the importance to realize constitutional changes after real consultation
with the political powers is stressed. First let’s introduce the main conclusions
of the report, which are general both for Armenia and Azerbaijan where the members
of the monitoring commission have also visited. "The visits to these two
countries 8 months later from the previous showed that the situation hadn’t been
changed in case of democratic progress. The inability of present authorities to
admit that the change of authorities must be possible with the help of ballots,
the lack of separation of licence, the control towards judicial authorities freedom
of mass media, refusal of moving amendments of jurisprudence are proofs that the
authorities aren’t able to put a stop to the activities of the past. These two
countries try to overcome the results of rigged elections, which makes the dialogue
with the opposition different if not impossible. The weaken opposition parties
refuse to collaborate and it seems they wait for next elections but without certain
illusions. The voters’ belief in democratic processes is lost and the civil society
is disappointed."Speaking on our country the reporters mention: "The
political atmosphere is dismal in Armenia." They admit the delegation was
shocked by the moods of the opposition and non-governmental organizations, which
hadn’t accepted yet the results of the elections but "it seems they have
lost the belief in fast changes. Both countries were criticizing the condescension
of Europe towards the authorities. And the PACE accepted resolution /October 2004/
on honouring of commitments is mentioned on this occasion."Roland Wegener’s
group records that a crisis exists between relations of authority and opposition,
which reached to its culmination in April 2004. According to the report though
the counteraction was over "the situation keeps strained. The opposition
weakened after those events and it seems it’s waiting now to see what will happen
and find effective ways of cabals."It is spoken about constitutional
amendments in the report: on this occasion the opposition and authority were called
to resume the dialogue and provide interconsistency on suggestions of the commission
of Venice. And it is mentioned specially that project will be produced for referendum
which the commission of Venice will express full approval. Wegener’s group
also considers important the amendment of "Electoral code" and punishment
of those who rigged the elections. The delegation stressed the importance of solution
of these two issues to reestablish the belief of voters in the elections. The
monitoring group has also suggested that the committee of Ministers call to use
effective ways to guarantee by law various opinions in mass media, the freedom
of holding meetings and the freedom of juridical authority. Wegener’s group will
report the results of this in Summer 2005.Anna Israelian
