If a man doesn’t want to meet with someone and it is part of his personal life, he has many opportunities to avoid the meeting, following all rules of conduct. If he doesn’t want to meet, but he is compelled to do that given the nature of his work, he must be well-prepared for that meeting and be responsible for its efficiency. I, for example, am not eager to take an interview from someone every day, but it is part of my job and I try to do it as well as possible.
In Armenia, John Prescott, the co-rapporteur for the PACE Monitoring Committee, had meetings with representatives of some National Assembly factions and relatives of the people killed on March 1 with such aversion that it seemed he was not a European at all, but a murmuring bride who was compelled to lay the table for guests once again. He almost threw plates on the floor, showing with all his appearance what a hard and uninteresting thing he has done.
There was no logic in Prescott’s attitude – if everything is good inArmenia, if we are resolutely moving toward democracy, then on what does PACE pass resolutions, establish a monitoring committee and appoint co-rapporteurs of that committee? Let them state that there is no need for monitoring and we have the same status in the Council of Europe asBritaindoes. In that instance, I would propose to send Schmeiss, Lyovik of Alraghats (mill) and let’s say, Karo of Yuve to London, let them carry out monitoring this time – is everything good in Westminster? Our people are hawk-eyed; they will certainly notice violations of the European Convention.
However, the reality, as I understand it, is different – resolutions onArmeniahave been passed for the past three and a half years, because elections have been rigged, people have been killed, there have been prisoners of conscience, the right to freedom of assemblies and speech has been violated in our country. Certainly, some progress has been made in some of the mentioned issues, but to say that we have crossed the “point of no return” would be a big exaggeration. In my opinion, we will cross that point when the murderers of “March 1” will appear before the court.
Read also
Logic implies that a co-rapporteur for the monitoring committee comes to the given country to hear opinions of the interested parties on these very issues. But during a meeting with the opposition factions of the National Assembly, Mr. Prescott just repeated Galust Sahakyan’s opinion that was probably his opinion too. And he was constantly warning relatives of the victims that his time was up. Probably, it is common inEngland.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
