Issue of Turkey discussed at PACE Bureau session
On September 5, the meeting of PACE Bureau took place in Paris where the RA NA Deputy Speaker, Head of the Armenian Delegation to PACE, member of PACE Bureau Hermine Naghdalyan took part. The key issues on the agenda were the CE Secretary General’s and PACE President’s reports. Mainly, they touched upon the summer events in various European countries, first of all in Turkey , the attempted coup d’Etat and the actions preceding it and the aftermath of the coup . PACE President emphasized that political figures should assume a special obligation to protect their citizens in their communities, rejecting terrorism, international tension and labeling, growing populist intolerant and radical rhetoric. The societies should remember about the values uniting them, common interests and achievements, including, which is the most important, the creation of united all-European legal space underpinned by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) standards. Mr. Agramunt highlighted the process of strengthening democratic institutions in Turkey and called on to strictly observe domestic legal procedures and the CE standards. During the meeting they thoroughly discussed PACE President P. Agramunt‘s and the CE Secretary General T. Jagland’s visits to Turkey and their activities and announcements within the framework of those visits. The Bureau shared Mr Jagland’s opinion that the struggle against the coup plotters may not be through violations of requirements of democratic norms. In his report, Mr Jagland emphasized that though Turkey deviated from European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), but the Convention continues to function under the control of the European Court of Human Rights. Thus, each measure initiated by the authorities should strictly comply with the threat spirit and European standards, excluding the pressure on freedom of expression, persecution of journalists accredited in Turkey also before the coup. Issues concerning Pedro Agramunt’s visit to the Russian Federation , meetings with the Presidents of the State Duma and the Federation Council and with leading executives were discussed. The implementation of Paragraph 13 of the Resolution on “The Situation in Kosovo and the Role of the Council of Europe” was one of the items of agenda at the September meeting of the Bureau. A new format of cooperation with Kosovo’s delegation was proposed. During the meeting of the Bureau draft agendas of PACE October Session were adopted, the issues of sending observers during the elections in several countries, including Georgia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Moldova and other countries, issues of submitting a number of reports and suggestions to the respective committees and other working issues were considered. During the works of the September meeting of PACE Bureau the RA Deputy Speaker Hermine Naghdalyan exchanged opinions with the CE Secretary General, Committee Chairs and representatives from a number of countries.
