Opposition MP Says She was Asked Not to Direct Questions to Armenia President at PACE

In 2010, Armenian authorities prohibited Heritage Party MP, member of Armenia’s PACE delegation Zaruhi Postanjyan from participating in PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) activities. The ban was removed when the Council of Europe personally intervened on Postanjyan’s behalf. This news was shared by Postanjyan herself, while speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.

Armenian authorities, according to Postanjyan, have decided to change their policies.

Recall, addressing Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan following his speech at the PACE summer session in Strasbourg, Postanjyan stated that an authoritarian regime has been formed in the Republic of Armenia and that elections have been rigged since 1995.

“I would like to know, don’t you wish to initiate real reforms, to join the statute of the International Court of Justice, to initiate pre-term, fair elections and resign? Nevertheless, I believe that, all the same, authoritarian regimes will fail; it would be better if you left voluntarily and our people will understand and accept that,” she had said, continuing to speak even after she surpassed the 30 seconds allotted and was prompted to wrap up.

The Armenian president, in response, said he wasn’t preparing for pre-term elections in Armenia because neither is there the need nor does the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia allow for early elections to be held so easily.

“To say after that response that we are more democratic than the Republic of Azerbaijan or Turkey is not right. We have to become a truly democratic state and it’s not by posing a question that we have become or are on the path of becoming a democratic country,” she said.

The Heritage Party MP also commented on her ARF-D (Armenian Revolutionary Federation or Dashnaktsutyun) colleague Armen Rustamyan’s statement that Dashnaktsutyun has never appealed to foreign powers to resolve domestic political issues. Postanjyan noted that Armenia is a full member of the PACE, which Republic of Armenia citizens pay for: “We’re not a member there just like that, and it is our right to make use of the protection there.”

“Everyone knows what sort of persecutions have been carried out against me; everyone knows how they asked me to remove the question, not to ask a question,” she said, declining to reveal who, in particular, asked her to refrain from posing questions.

“It would’ve been great if Rustamyan said — and why didn’t he ask a question? And I would very much like to know why Rustamyan, who is an opposition representative, didn’t ask a question,” Postanjyan concluded.