John Prescott, the PACE co-rapporteur on Armenia, started his meetings with NGOs, the members of the Armenian delegation to PACE and political forces in the framework of his visit to Armenia today.
In the afternoon, he met with the members of the Armenian delegation to PACE at the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia. After neither it, nor the meeting with the Heritage faction, Prescott thought it was worth to speak to the journalists and did not answer any questions.
Zaruhi Postanjyan, a Heritage faction member and a representative of the Armenian delegation to PACE said that during a meeting with the delegation there was a serious debate between Prescott and Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) representative Armen Rustamyan. According to her,Prescottdid not wish to listen to the issues voiced by the representatives of the parliamentary opposition and even allowed himself to smash his fist down on the table when he heard a different idea. “His bias was obvious”, stated Postanjyan. Prescott refused to listen to Armen Rustamyan, a representative of the Armenian delegation to PACE and a representative of the ARF faction, saying that he would listen to the notion of the faction during a separate meeting with the ARF MPs.
“If they will not refer to the issues raised by us in the report made by the co-rapporteurs and no answers are given, I will necessarily voice my protest at PACE”, said the Heritage representative.Prescottstated that he thought no public examination had been made on the “March 1” events. Z. Postanjyan found that observation right, stressing that the President of the Republic of Armenia had met with the judicial power representatives, high-ranking representatives of the law-enforcement bodies in regard to “March 1” and other issues related to the judicial system, but he had never met with the other side, with the NGOs and human rights organizations, with the counselors involved in those cases, with the legal successors of the people killed during the “March 1” events, in order that there was a debate and public discussion to some extent. The MP askedPrescottto raise that issue during the meeting with the establishment.
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Naira MAMIKONYAN
