YEREVAN. – Zaruhi Postanjyan stated that Armenian National Assembly (NA) Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan cannot remove her from the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) because this will violate the PACE Charter, 168 Zham reports.   

“The PACE Charter, however, proposes two principles for the formation of national delegations: political and gender balance.

“If Zaruhi Postanjyan [who is Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party NA Faction Secretary and member of Armenia’s NA delegation to PACE] is removed from the delegation, neither will the government-opposition balance tip in favor of the government, nor will a gender discrimination come about because, aside from Zaruhi Postanjyan, there are three more women MPs in the delegation.     

“We have learned that, as of January 1, 2014, [the coalition government’s junior partner, Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law)] RLP member Mher Shahgeldyan will replace Zaruhi Postanjyan,” 168 Zham writes.  

To note, during the question and answer session at the PACE plenary session in Strasbourg, France, on October 2, Zaruhi Postanjyan had asked Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan the following question:

“You have appeared here [in the PACE session] not by the will of the people, but [rather] as a consequence of organized crime, the theft of the Armenian people’s vote. Therefore you cannot de jure represent the will and right of the Armenian people. [So,] I’ll give you another question. Have you been to a casino in Europe and lost 70 million euros there? And who paid that amount in your stead?”