European Forum

PACE stops short of sanctions as Armenia’s authorities pledge legal amendments

On January 27the the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) backed down on its threats to impose sanctions against Armenia, citing Yerevan’s pledge of legal amendments that could result in the release of dozens of imprisoned opposition members. Yerevan has been facing sanctions since late December 2008, after the PACE Monitoring Committee submitted a draft resolution saying there were ‘political prisoners’ in Armenia and urging the assembly to suspend the voting rights of its Armenian members. It claimed the Yerevan authorities had failed to comply with earlier resolutions demanding the immediate release of supporters of the opposition arrested on “artificial or politically motivated charges” as a result of the February and March 2008 post-election violence.

The draft proposal was followed by a visit of the Committee’s two Armenia rapporteurs, John Prescott and Georges Colombier, to Yerevan in January 2009. After meeting with President Sarkisian and other top officials, they amended the draft resolution, with its final version no longer speaking of ‘political prisoners’, but stating that supporters of the opposition leader Levon ter Petrosian ‘may have been charged and imprisoned for political motivations.’ It goes on to emphasise the importance of President Sarkisian’s pledges of the above-mentioned legal amendments.

While the official Armenian delegation at the PACE reacted positively to the resolution, representatives of the opposition Armenian National Alliance (HAK) were more bitter initially, saying “Prescott and Colombier presented a one-sided and false information about processes taking place in Armenia.” However, this attitude was somewhat changed several days later, as they claimed the proposed document is “by and large not that bad and creates the basis for working to free the political prisoners, and sets a particular course for restoring democratic freedoms”.

PACE has given Armenia at least three months to release the opposition members and supporters who it believes were arrested following the February 2008 presidential election for political motives.