On October 21, within the framework of the European Conference of presidents of parliament of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) the President of the National Assembly Alen Simonyan had a meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CE) Marija Pejčinović Burić.
Thanking the CE Secretary General for the meeting, the RA NA President mentioned that this year Armenia’s 20-year membership to the Council of Europe marked, highlighting the cooperation with the Council of Europe and the support of the organization to the process of democratic reforms going on in the country.
He highly assessed the role of the CE and PACE monitoring structures in strengthening democracy in Armenia and the work done within the framework of the initiated reforms. Alen Simonyan touched upon the observation of the snap parliamentary elections held in Armenia in June 2021 and the given high evaluation.
The sides referred to the large-scale war unleashed against Artsakh by Azerbaijan and the post-war situation. Alen Simonyan stressed that Azerbaijan continues holding Armenian prisoners of war and the civilians in hostage and initiating false criminal proceedings. The Speaker of the legislative body underlined the necessity of keeping this problem in the center of attention of PACE.
Issues regarding human rights and democracy were discussed.
