Mr. President,

Secretary General,

Dear colleagues,

It is always a pleasure to be here and to exchange views with you. As the President said, I am not a stranger here.  I have been here several times, and if the number of my appearances here had been directly proportional to our chances to become a member of Council of Europe, I would have be sitting on the other side now, but we are still working with you so that before the end of the year Armenia become a full member of the Council of Europe. 

I was here only a few months ago, and I addressed and touched upon several issues that concern Armenia. Primary among those were our domestic stability, economic reforms, democratic processes and the Nagorno Karabagh conflict. Three months have passed, but not much has changed in our country: our stability is being maintained and it's becoming stronger with each passing day. Recently, there were some differences of opinion in our Parliament with regards to its Chairman, and that was the result of disagreement between the two parties in the coalition that has a majority in the Parliament. That majority was weakened after the assassination of its leaders and now there are a many disagreements on major policy issues. As a result, one of the coalition parties has demanded the  resignation of the Chairman of Parliament. We view this as a normal process, there is nothing unusual here. At this moment, there are still some uncertainties, discussions and debates as whether to accept the resignation of the Chairman or keep him in his post. That issue was referred to the Constitutional Court, and we hope that the decision will come soon.

Besides that, our domestic situation is quite stable, we do not foresee any major problems in the coming months and years, and as our membership becomes a reality, our democratic institutions will be further strengthened, and all these processes certainly will become irreversible. 

Another matter which is directly related to the Parliament is what transpired after the assassinations last October.  Many of you had expressed a great deal of interest in the legal proceedings which followed. I recall that at the time, I said that within two months the military prosecutor would present the case to the Court. Now, I can inform you that the case is at the Criminal Court, the process continues, and we hope that the actual trial will begin soon. We also hope that we will have a judgement in this case, so that we can put it behind us. As much as this issue interests you, it interests us, the people and Government of Armenia, and most importantly - the families of the victims, who are very carefully following this case. They, too, are very eager to hear the final judgement on what happened on October 27.

On the economic front, I can say that we are concentrating fully on economic issues. The Government has a clear plan as to where the country is heading in the coming years. Privatization, which is part of the government's economic development plan, is progressing very rapidly, and we hope that by the end of the year we will have privatized the  strategically important major sectors such as the energy distribution network. That should certainly put us Հ as far as the IMF and the World Bank are concerned, as far as privatization is concerned -- at a totally new qualitative level. That should certainly enhance our relationship in terms of meeting their obligations so that we can improve our balance of payments and also the budgetary situation which is critical for the overall development plan that we have put before ourselves for the coming years.

As far as the other main issue which is closely tied to our foreign policy agenda Հ the peaceful resolution of the Nagorno Karabagh conflict Հ I recall that last time we met I reported that we had had several opportunities for high-level meetings between the two presidents and also between the Co-chair countriesղ heads of state. The two presidents have met twice: once in Yalta, the other time in New York. Unfortunately, at this moment I do not have much news with respect to a major breakthrough in this process. That can be interpreted as though the process is in a stalemate or at a deadlock. That, certainly, is not the case. The presidents will continue to meet, a lot of ground has been covered and the foundations have been laid for progress in the coming months and certainly early next year.

There are several factors affecting the speed of the process: President Aliev's health, the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan and also, the presidential elections in the United States which are now slowing down this process, since the US is one of the most important players along with Russia and France in the mediation process. Nevertheless, the commitment of the two presidents is there, as was reiterated several times to the Council of Europe, and most recently, in my response to Minister Dini's letter, where we clearly said that there is strong commitment by the two presidents, the two sides as well as  the Nagorno Karabagh side, to reach a compromise solution through negotiations. I think this may now sound a little bit abstract, nevertheless, it is an important principle, given our track record of the past years when each side was adamantly insisting on its own extreme position as to how it sees things resolved. But since the beginning of the dialogue between the two presidents, that situation has changed, and it seems like the presidents are meeting each other halfway on this issue, and they are reiterating their commitment on every occasion to reach a compromise solution: something that will be acceptable to all the parties involved in this process. We still believe that there will be occasions where the two presidents will meet during this year, although probably not many since there are no multilateral gatherings which the two will attend.

Given everything that I have said, we do not think that they will plan a special bilateral meeting on this issue. But once their elections have been held, and President Aliev is fully recovered, we have great hopes that early next year this process will gain speed, and during the year we will make every effort to achieve a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno Karabagh conflict. The foundations are there, the commitments are there, with a little political will and determination, we do hope that we will make serious progress during the next year.