January 28, 2008

RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AT THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

Addresses Parliamentary Assembly, Salutes Hrant Dink, Moves Armenian Heritage Resolutions

Strasbourg, France—Raffi K. Hovannisian, Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of the Heritage Party group in its National Assembly, took part from January 20 to 26 in the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).  Together with MPs Avet Adonts and Vahe Hovhannisyan, Hovannisian spearheaded the Armenian national delegation, which is chaired by newly-elected PACE vice president Davit Harutyunyan.

In the course of this first PACE meeting of 2008, Raffi Hovannisian, who was elected to the Bureau of the European People’s Party (EPP) and, as its candidate, to membership in the Parliamentary Assembly’s influential Monitoring Committee as well as in its Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities, and Institutional Affairs:

* On behalf of the EPP group, asked visiting Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico about the Czech and Slovak experience of civil separation and subsequent political partnership as an exemplary European model of conflict resolution, especially in view of the contemporary challenges in Kosovo, Artsakh (Mountainous Karabagh), and elsewhere.

* On behalf of the EPP group, asked Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis about guidelines for and instances of conflict of interest within the Secretariat, as well as on the need for improved communication among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the organization.

* Presented the EPP’s official position in support of the agenda item and report entitled “Procedural guidelines on the rights and responsibilities of the opposition in a democratic parliament,” with a reference to the degree of democracy, statecraft and civilization in Armenia and the post-Soviet republics.  [The entire transcript is attached under “Sittings.doc.”]

* Both in the plenary deliberations and at the meeting of the EPP group which preceded them, delivered an address in response to the report entitled “Developments as regards the future status of Kosovo,” underscoring in particular that “high politics and the centrality of geographical location cannot serve to trump international law and the customary practice of its application as they refer to issues of self-determination and sovereignty. In this regard, for example, the constitutional foundations and juridical underpinnings of Mountainous Karabagh are impeccable. What we say here today is ‘no’ to partisan polemical presentations, ‘no’ to applications of multiple standards, and ‘yes’ to the principles and precepts [of this report]…and finally to a connection between democratic standards and ultimate political status.”  [The entire transcript is attached under “Sittings.doc.”]

* Gave a speech in favor of the report entitled “Transfrontier co-operation” in which he called for an unconditional regional collaboration at all levels and in all places with the prospect one day of achieving a pan-European cooperation “sans frontieres,” and urged “a select few” of his colleagues to refrain from abusing such measures of continental and global importance for the petty purpose of repeating their assertions of unfounded partisan rhetoric.  [The entire transcript is attached under “Sittings.doc.”]

* Rose to ask Slovakian Foreign Minister Jan Kubis, in his capacity of Chairperson of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, about the Committee’s position on “Azerbaijan’s effective denial of access to the official rapporteur of the Committee on Culture, Science, and Education, who had recently been authorized to conduct a goodwill mission to observe the site of the medieval Armenian cemetery of Jugha, Nakhichevan and to verify, inter alia, the existing evidence that thousands of cross-stones—testaments of our common European heritage—were fully and finally destroyed by Azerbaijani uniformed personnel in December 2005,” as well as “whether this intentional destruction of heritage by a member-state—carried out 11 years after the relevant cease-fire and hundreds of kilometers from the conflict zone—or the subsequent denial of access to an official PACE delegation was in conformity with the obligations and benchmarks of its membership and, if not, what should be done about this affront to our organization.”

* In the meetings of the Committee on Culture, Science, and Education and its Subcommittee on the Cultural Heritage, of which he is a member, intervened to maintain on the agenda and to underscore the outstanding imperative of dispatching Rapporteur Edward O’Hara to Nakhichevan and the entire region, and together with his colleagues on the Committee secured a decision to relaunch and realize the mission at issue during the current year; and in the pursuit of this objective based on mutual respect and confidence-building participated in a consultative encounter initiated by the Rapporteur with chairman Samad Seyidov of the Azerbaijani delegation who attended the meeting with six of his associates.

* In the meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights, of which he is a member, as well as that of the Culture Committee’s Subcommittee on the Media, took the floor to pay tribute to the life and legacy of human rights champion Hrant Dink on the first anniversary of his cowardly assassination, to express solidarity with the outrage of Turkish civil society on this occasion, to emphasize the absolute necessity to achieve a European standard of integrity of the historical record, and to condemn without reservation all murders  committed against journalists, irrespective of their persuasion or nationality, and all attacks aimed at them and their freedom of expression; and against this background, noted that Hrant’s killer and his official accomplices were yet to stand trial and that his son was subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code for “insulting Turkishness” by publishing an earlier interview given by his father in which he referred to the genocide of the Armenian people.
 
* Officially cosponsored a variety of Motions for a Resolution devoted, among other subjects, to special education programs, missing persons in Cyprus, and respect for media freedom, the latter of which was tabled by Andrew McIntosh of the United Kingdom and noted with great regret that “Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code is still valid legislation in Turkey, although its application violates Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and has created a vicious atmosphere which gave rise to the murder of the journalist Hrant Dink in Istanbul on 19 January 2007.”

* Together with more than 25 cosponsors, introduced a Motion for a Resolution entitled “The state of cultural heritage in Turkey” and a Motion for a Recommendation entitled “The present state of Armenian cultural treasures in Turkey.” [The full texts can be found at http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc08/EDOC11510.htm and http://assembly.coe.int/Main.asp?link=/Documents/WorkingDocs/Doc08/EDOC11511.htm.]

* Conferred and exchanged views with Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Albanian President Bamir Topi, newly-elected PACE President Lluis Maria de Puig, and several others.

The Armenian delegation returned to Yerevan on January 27.