We present you the expert Edgar Khachatryan’s commentaries to the ”question” of the representative of Macedonia, a member of the PACE Socialist Group Igor Ivanovsky to the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, voiced on the eve of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
Specialist recalls that yesterday at a ”question and answer” session, after the speech of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan at the session of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly, the representative of Macedonia, a member of the Socialist Group of PACE Igor Ivanovsky expressed concern about so-called ”Regression of democracy, the lack of freedom of judiciary, as well as the growth of crime and corruption” in Armenia.
In response, Serzh Sargsyan advised the parliamentarian to read the reports of the observer missions and ironically said: ”I also respect your right to ask a question and express an opinion, and I would like to see your country recorded significant success in the field of democracy. I see that you have it in your country, without knowing what country you represent, since you are so seriously concerned about the development of democracy in Armenia, I am sure, that ten times more you are concerned about the development of democratic processes in your country. Thank you.”
In this regard, the expert said: ”A short study, published on the PACE website, shows that I. Ivanovsky is not particularly active in the PACE. He is a member of the PACE’s Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development Committee, as well as a member of subcommittee on environmental issues and energy of the PACE. A deeper analysis shows that, in all probability, the cause of sharp criticism against Armenia is in Ivanovsky’s membership in subcommittee on Environmental and energical issues of the PACE.
”Mr. Ivanovsky on April 25-27 this year has visited Baku, where he was awarded a traditional caviar treat and repeated the favourite dream of Azerbaijanis to organize meetings of Armenian and Azerbaijani PACE deputies to discuss the issue of increasing the number of members of the subcommittee on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
As a member of the PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Ivanovsky’s statements also should be noted, for example; in a speech on the arrests of homeless people in Hungary, he expressed support for the Spanish parliamentarian Jordi Xucla Costa, who in February 2011, as a result of efforts of Azerbaijani and Turkish delegations, as well as thanks to the personal efforts of the then PACE president Mevluta Cavusoglu of Turk nationality, became head of the subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh.
Then, at the winter and spring session of the PACE 2011, as a result of the purposeful work of the Armenian delegation, Jordi Xucla Costa was deprived of the opportunity to lead the subcommittee. And that year Mr Jordi Xucla Costa has already been included in the composition of the PACE observer mission in the presidential elections in Azerbaijan and already managed to disseminate the enthusiastic statement about ”the democratic character” of these election”, the analyst underlines.
The expert also recalls the conclusion of the authors of the study of the ”European Stability Initiative” entitled ”Caviar Diplomacy: How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe?” expressing regret that the PACE, which is called upon to carry out the most important mission in the field of European democracy, the rule of law and human rights, is becoming the center of opposition of interests of various groups, as a result of which the role of the entire structure is put into question.
Let us recall, that in May 2012, the European Stability Initiative published a study entitled ”Caviar Diplomacy: How Azerbaijan silenced the Council of Europe?”, which detailed the chronology and mechanisms for bribing deputies of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe by the ruling regime of Azerbaijan.