Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-13-Speech-4-186"
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"en.20080313.18.4-186"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, will the tragic events that have occurred in Armenia since the presidential election on 19 February 2008 send out the message that Europe is incapable of supporting the fragile little democracies of the South Caucasus in their struggle to become established?
Following the crisis in Georgia, it is now Armenia’s turn to suffer major political upheaval. Despite the high level of attention directed at the country during the election campaign, the international community failed to promote the dialogue that might have prevented the clashes on 1 March. After 11 days of protest against the election results by the opposition movement under former head of state Levon Ter-Petrosian, police tried to disperse the demonstrators. The situation degenerated, resulting in the deaths of eight people, injuries to many others and the imposition of a state of emergency with curbs on freedom of information and freedom of assembly, as well as restrictions on political parties. Since then, 400 people have been arrested. There is an evident mood of anxiety among the population, who fear that a policy of repression will be imposed. We have a duty today, in our contacts with all the parties involved in the Armenian conflict, to reflect that fear.
The question, however, is what we should propose as a method of bringing all sides to their senses and getting them to the negotiating table against the current backdrop of heightened tension? That is the challenge. We need to restore the confidence of ordinary Armenian men and women in their fledgling democracy. Essential preconditions for restoring confidence are the setting up of an inquiry into the recent events and the release of those imprisoned. The next step – in conjunction with the international community, our Special Representative to the South Caucasus and our partners in the Council of Europe and the OSCE – must be to fix a timescale for our Armenian friends to return to the negotiating table, and we must bring all the conflicting parties to the table, on both the official and the opposition sides. The rules of democracy depend upon dialogue and non-violence and it is up to us to facilitate such an approach.
With your permission, Mr President, I should like to propose an oral amendment. I am not sure how to proceed for the fact is that we made a mistake in the resolution. In recital H we referred to the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh where we should have said the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. It would seem that my colleagues agree with the oral amendment."@en1
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