President of the Armenian Legislature in Strasbourg meets with the head of the Council of Europe
YEREVAN. – Speaker Alen Simonyan of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia (RA NA), who is in Strasbourg, France, on a working visit, met on Friday with Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric of the Council of Europe (CoE). The parties discussed the procedure for resolving certain issues expressed at the previous meeting. In particular, the implementation of the RA-CoE Action Plan for Armenia 2019-2022 was at the heart of the discussions.
The President of the ANR documented that it is carried out, recalling with satisfaction that the CoE secretariat also gave this assessment during the meeting of the steering committee of the CoE action plan held in Yerevan on March 2, informs the AN Armenian News-NEWS.am. The parties spoke of the necessary continuity of the Action Plan. Simonyan underlined the priorities of the common agenda regarding the protection of human rights and the fight against corruption, highly appreciating the key support of the Council of Europe with its institutes and monitoring mechanisms. They relate to the PACE resolution on the activities of democratic institutes in Armenia, in which the Assembly highly appreciated Armenia’s progress in the process of democratic development.
One of the items on the agenda was the unresolved humanitarian issues existing so far due to the aggression against Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in 2020, including the item of the return of prisoners from Armenian war and other detainees. Alen Simonyan noted that since the previous meeting with Pejcinovic Buric, progress had not been significant on the issue of the return of prisoners of war and the reports of specialized international structures on the inhuman conditions of detention of prisoners of war and on the flagrant violation of the right of others fundamental rights disturb. He thanked the Secretary General of the Council of Europe for repeatedly raising these issues, stressing her support for the mediation efforts of the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Group.
Marija Pejcinovic Buric underlined the significance and importance of the co-chairmanship of the Minsk Group in the process of settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.