Armenia’s opposition MPs held a meeting with Boriana Åberg and Piero Fassino, co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee on Armenia’s obligations. The meeting was announced during a Facebook livestream by Hayk Mamijanyan, head of the I Have Honor parliamentary faction.
Mamijanyan stated that the opposition presented documented evidence about the "disgraceful condition of political prisoners" in Armenia.
“We urged the co-rapporteurs to personally visit political prisoners,” he said.
He also mentioned that the meeting addressed the campaign against the Armenian Church.
“We expressed our dissatisfaction with the shameful and omitted wording in the report,” Mamijanyan added.
On January 26, PACE adopted a resolution titled “Progress of the Assembly's monitoring procedure,” in which it expressed concern about tensions between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The Armenia-related section of the resolution also notes concern over reports that some clergymen were allegedly involved in plans to seize power.
PACE further expressed concern about extreme polarization in Armenia’s political landscape ahead of parliamentary elections and urged improvement of relations between the ruling majority and opposition to ensure a campaign free of personal attacks among candidates.
