Mr. Chairman,

First of all, let me say that I am truly honored and privileged to be here today and take this invitation for Armenia's membership back home. It is indeed a historic moment for all Armenians. I left Yerevan at 5:30 this morning, and I arrived here just 30 minutes ago. I will leave in a few hours via Zurich back to Armenia. As I was kissing my two boys good bye early this morning while they were still in bed, my wife wondered whether it was worth traveling all the way to Strasbourg for only three hours. In my two and a half year tenure as foreign minister, I have crisscrossed continents for a great many reasons; some worthy, some not so worthy. But there is no doubt in my mind that this one trip was very worth taking it; and it was worth taking for the sake of our children. Our generation is entrusted with the very difficult, challenging and responsible task of calling the shots at a very critical and precarious time in our nation's and state's history. We are not only at a geographic crossroads but also at the crossroads of political and economic developments. Every decision counts. Our decisions and actions today will determine our children's future. We cannot afford making mistakes, we have to make the right choice.

For Armenia, the choice was very clear from the first day of our independence: democracy, rule of law and respect for human rights. Indeed, a lot has been done since that day. And in the past few years we have attempted to maintain a steady course in preparation for our Council of Europe membership. In doing so, we have continued to look at the way in which those before us have attempted to embody the values of the Council of Europe by making those values a significant part of the conduct of their own affairs. The steps required in making critical transitions from non-democratic political systems to more open societies cannot be reduced to a mechanical recipe. Sometimes they require legal and constitutional formulas and devices. At times what is necessary is nothing less than the recasting of the entire political culture. Under normal circumstances, these transformations, these adaptations can and should take a very long time. Some might say it took Europe more than three centuries to evolve to its present institutional incarnation. It is our desire however to make sure that we do not have to repeat the same waiting period. We must accelerate the process. The model has proved itself and delays can be counterproductive. Europe is no longer an experiment and we ourselves want to move from experimentation to institutionalization. Mr. Chairman,

This invitation for Armenia to join the Council justifies our efforts on the path of democracy. What follows our membership will be our firm commitment not to deviate from this path. As we have done before in writing, today I will reiterate in person on behalf of the Government and the people of Armenia, our commitment to democracy, rule of law and the principles and provisions of this Council. Our democracy, we understand, is still in its infancy. We have a long way to travel. And today we have a clear blueprint which will guide us, lead us on this path. We have problems, shortcomings and flaws not only domestically, but also in our region. We have differences with our neighbor Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabagh. We have differences with our other neighbor Turkey on how we interpret history and our common past. We will not bring these problems to the Council; we simply want to use the Council and its values to address these issues. We believe that the more democratic, open and transparent our societies become, it will be that much easier for us to address those most contentious political problems. We believe we can, together with our neighbors, transcend these problems. Mr. Chairman,

I would like to thank every one of you for the vote of confidence in Armenia. And, in particular, I would like to commend and thank the Italian Chairmanship for guiding this process during this year. And once again, thanking you all, we would very much like to express our commitment to work with you to enhance democratic conditions in our own country and together create a better region, a better Caucasus and even a better Europe. Thank you.