Armenian Reporter:

Zaruhi Postanjian: Levon should have been by our side on March 1

Stands by actions at PACE

Published: Friday July 03, 2009

Zaruhi Postanjian (Heritage Party), a member of Armenia’s National Assembly. Tigran Tadevosian / Photolure

Yerevan - Zaruhi Postanjian, a lawyer and human-rights activist who has defended the rights of others rights dozens of times, has been put in the position of defending herself against vile personal attacks launched by Public Television and pro-government politicians. Ms. Postanjian is a member of parliament from the opposition Heritage Party and part of Armenia's delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

At the summer session of the assembly, held June 22 to 26, Ms. Postanjian had prepared a proposal to the Monitoring Committee (Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by member states of the Council of Europe). The proposal required five signatures. Along with the signatures of well-known delegates from Sweden and Switzerland, Ms. Postanjian got the signatures of a Turkish delegate and an Azerbaijani delegate. The proposal asked the Monitoring Committee to call on Armenia's authorities "to free the remaining political prisoners, to reconstitute the fact-finding group studying the events of March 1, 2008, and invite international experts to join it, and to instruct the co-rapporteurs to visit Armenia again before the winter session, in order to prepare a new report about Armenia."

For getting the signatures of the Turkish and Azerbaijani delegates, Ms. Postanjian was accused of treason by some. Back in Yerevan, she, on the other hand, insisted that if Armenian delegates refuse to cosponsor a petition that calls for the release of participants in the Karabakh liberation struggle, then she has no hesitation in asking an Azerbaijani delegate to cosponsor it.

We spoke to Ms. Postanjian in Yerevan after her return from Strasbourg.

Armenian Reporter: Ms. Postanjian, We were preparing to report on the resolution about Armenia adopted by PACE in its summer session, when we were struck by the personal attacks mounted on you by Armenia's Public Television and others. How do you explain the fact that the resolution got little attention and you became the subject of criticism? Was it simply the fact that an Azerbaijani delegate and a Turkish delegate cosponsored your three suggestions?

Zaruhi Postanjian: The main reason for this noise is not that a Turkish delegate and an Azerbaijani delegate cosponsored my proposal, but a different draft resolution, which bears first of all the signature of Christos Pourgourides of Cyprus.

Keeping the book open

The initiative for this draft resolution came from me. It calls for a special rapporteur to be appointed to collect information about the ten fatalities [of March 1, 2008]. The Armenian delegation to PACE, led by Davit Harutiunian – who was joined on this occasion by National Assembly Speaker Hovik Abrahamian – aimed to close the book on the 10 innocent victims of March 1 in this session of PACE. [The issue has been on PACE's agenda repeatedly since April 2008.] Don't forget that three of the victims were killed through the use of obsolete technology by the police, according to the president at the time, Robert Kocharian.

AR: When did you prepare the draft resolution? Before the three suggestions that the Azerbaijani and Turkish delegates signed?

ZP: It was on the same day, June 22.

Let me tell you what happened in Strasbourg in greater detail. We arrived there on Sunday, June 21. I am part of the European People's Party – Christian Democrats (EPP-CD) group at the Council of Europe, and I participated in the session of its Enlarged Bureau. In this session, we discussed who would address the assembly on behalf of the EPP regarding each of various items on the agenda.

The issue of Armenia was already on the agenda for the session and was to be addressed on June 24. I was asked during the EPP Enlarged Bureau session whether the PACE resolutions on Armenia had been implemented. I said this, this, this, and this point have not been implemented. And on that very day, I presented a draft resolution on investigating the circumstances of the 10 deaths.

Armenian delegates disagree

At another session of the EPP group on June 22, when the topic of my initiative was being discussed, co-rapporteur Georges Colombier responded to me, saying there had been some progress, but he acknowledged that nothing had been done about investigating the circumstances of the 10 deaths.

Later still the same day, the Monitoring Committee session took place, and I announced that the general amnesty [declared on the very eve of the PACE session] had nothing to do with justice; simply, some innocent people were released as a result of it.

After the Monitoring Committee session, a draft resolution was prepared, along with a report. I presented three suggestions – to call on Armenia's authorities to release the other political prisoners held in custody, to reconstitute the fact-finding group and invite international experts to join it, and to instruct the co-rapporteurs to visit Armenia again before the winter session, in order to prepare a new report about Armenia.

These three suggestions I entered in our delegation's room at PACE. Davit Harutiunian was there, as was [Prosperous Armenia's] Naira Zurbian, as was [the ARF's] Armen Rustamian. I first presented my draft resolution to the head of Armenia's delegation, Davit Harutiunian, and asked whether he would sign under it. He said no, he would not. Then I presented by three suggestions to him. He said no, neither he, nor any representative of the governing coalition would sign under it. I asked Armen Rustamian, and he too said he wouldn't sign, adding that he had his own suggestions.

I stepped out of our delegation's room, because I had no hope of getting the support of any of them. Where was I to gather cosponsors? You have been at PACE sessions numerous times and know that delegates and reporters gather at the Internet area. This was my second time at a PACE session and I knew few people. I approached two very prominent delegates to ask them to sign on. One was the Swede Göran Lindblad and the other was Andreas Gross of Switzerland. Also present were Gultakin Hajibayli of Azerbaijan and Erol Aslan Cebeci of Turkey. They too joined my three-point suggestion.

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