PACE: Armenian authorities should fully respect the principle of freedom of assembly

Last year, in June, to 'justify' banning opposition rallies in Liberty sq, Armenian authorities set up the 'amusement park', or 'children's park', there. Someone(s) is lacking originality and imagination, and it's time for a déjà vu. Yerevan municipality refused to authorise the rally in central Yerevan (outside the Matenadaran institute of ancient manuscripts) citing already planned 'little Matenadarantsi', a 'children's event', there. They went further banning the rally on Northern avenue too.

They also said there’s an “expert conclusion” stating the rally on Northern Avenue might “endanger the health and security of the people due to ongoing construction works there. (Now that one’s funny - I haven’t seen any traces of construction there for months!)

To complete this picture, below is a statement issued today by infamous Prescott & Colombier of PACE.

Strasbourg, 17.02.2009 - John Prescott and Georges Colombier , co-rapporteurs on Armenia 's monitoring for the Parliamenatry Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), expressed their concern about the refusal of the authorities to allow the Armenian National Congress (HAK) to organise a peaceful rally in Central Yerevan on 1 March 2009. They stressed that the Assembly has on several occasions called upon the authorities to fully respect the principle of freedom of assembly in Armenia and not to place undue restrictions, especially with regard to the requested venues, upon peaceful rallies organised by the opposition. In their view , the possibility for all political forces to organise peaceful rallies is an essential component of democracy and therefore call upon the authorities to allow such peaceful rallies to take place unimpeded in the requested venues. (PACE)