Violations in Armenia’s elections to be discussed in Strasbourg: Narek Karapetyan

The PACE will discuss today the violations that took place during the parliamentary elections in Armenia, Narek Karapetyan, head of the Strong Armenia faction and member of Armenia’s PACE delegation, told Alpha News.

“Following the discussion of the report presented by the Assembly’s committee, we will speak with our comments. It is important for us to take part in the process of proportional integration of Armenian and European institutions. We have several proposals on how individual Armenian sectors can be integrated into the European system. I believe this work should have been done long ago, but now we are forced to do it. It is necessary to work, and at the moment we are focused precisely on that,” he said.

According to Karapetyan, an Armenian khachkar stands opposite the PACE building, an important symbol of Armenia’s national and religious heritage: “An Armenian khachkar has been installed here, opposite the building. Among the member nations of the Council of Europe, it is rare to have such a monument to our national and religious heritage right in front of the building.”

Aram Vardevanyan, a member of the Strong Armenia party and representative of the Armenian delegation to PACE, said that in any case it is very important to guarantee democratic values and principles in the Republic of Armenia from the standpoint of European integration.

“PACE is precisely one of the institutions within which such issues should be discussed. We must strive to ensure that these principles are protected and guaranteed in the Republic of Armenia. Today, the electoral process issues that will be discussed are also focused on this, since Armenia has made it clear that there were legitimacy problems during the elections. It is obvious that national values are not given enough attention. It is also obvious that conditions for equal political competition were not ensured in these elections. In this regard, we see corresponding political consequences,” he said.

As a reminder, today, as part of PACE’s autumn session in Strasbourg, the report by Swiss rapporteur Damien Cottier on the observation of Armenia’s parliamentary elections will be discussed.