PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 – 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website:
18 April 2008
RAFFI HOVANNISIAN and PACE
Strasbourg, France–Raffi K. Hovannisian, leader of the Heritage Party
and its faction in the National Assembly, took part from April 14 to
18 in the second part of the 2008 plenary session of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as a member of Armenia’s
parliamentary delegation.
Raffi Hovannisian addressed the Assembly on three occasions, the first
regarding the Progress Report of the PACE Bureau on the observation of
the recent Armenian and other elections (the provisional transcript
can be found at
s/Records/2008/E/0804141500E.htm);
the second during the current affairs debate on Implications of
Kosovo’s Declaration of Independence
( k=/Documents/Records/2008/E/0804161500ADE.htm);
an d the third at the debate under urgent procedure on The Functioning
of Democratic Institutions in Armenia
( cuments/Records/2008/E/0804171000E.htm).
In the renowned PACE hemicycle, Hovannisian also privately greeted and
publicly posed questions to Germany’s Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel
( uments/Records/2008/E/0804151000E.htm),
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg
( /Documents/Records/2008/E/0804151500E.htm),
Ukrain e’s Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko
( /Documents/Records/2008/E/0804161000E.htm),
France ‘s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner
( ocuments/Records/2008/E/0804171000E.htm),
and Jan Kubis who is at once Minister for Foreign Affairs of the
Slovak Republic and Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the
Council of Europe.
In the course of the PACE proceedings, the motion for a
recommendation, entitled "The Present State of Armenian Cultural
Treasures in Turkey," coauthored by Raffi Hovannisian and 26 other MPs
representing more than 20 member states was referred for information
to the PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education on which he
serves ( WorkingDocs/Doc08/EDOC11511.htm).
Hovannisian attended and addressed the meetings of this Committee and
its Sub-Committee on the Cultural Heritage and the Sub-Committee on
the Media; the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and
Commitments of Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring
Committee); the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights and its
Sub-Committee on Human Rights; the Committee on Rules of Procedure,
Immunities and Institutional Affairs; and the Group of the European
People’s Party and its Bureau of which he is a member. He also held
informal consultations with Edward O’Hara, General Rapporteur on the
Cultural Heritage,and several other colleagues.
>From Strasbourg, Raffi Hovannisian will travel to Serbia and Kosovo,
where next week he will represent the Armenian delegation in a NATO
Parliamentary Assembly mission to the region.
Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land.
Its central office is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002,
Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 536.913, fax at (374-10)
532.697, email at [email protected] or [email protected], and website
at