Thorbjorn Jagland: CoE ready to continue assisting Armenia in the  democratization process

ArmInfo.Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met today with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland as part of his working visit to  Strasbourg. Prior to the meeting, Pashinyan made an entry in the  Golden Book of the Council of Europe.

During the meeting, Jagland noted that the holding and results of the  extraordinary parliamentary elections on December 9 demonstrate the  commitment of the Armenian people to democracy and the protection of  human rights, and the Council of Europe will continue to cooperate  with the Government of Armenia to achieve these goals. He noted that  the ongoing processes in the country testify to the commitment of  Armenia and the Armenian people to European values, and the CoE is  ready to continue to assist the country in this matter.

In turn, Nikol Pashinyan noted that the CoE for Armenia is an  important partner, cooperation with which is of paramount importance  for the development of democracy, protection of human rights and  ensuring the rule of law.

According to him, democracy for Armenia and the Armenian society is  an internal conviction and value, not an external orientation, and  the Republic of Armenia will consistently move forward on its  strengthening, protecting human rights and ensuring full rule of law.  The interlocutors also exchanged views on the issue of the settlement  of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and regional processes. After the  meeting, Nikol Pashinyan and Torbjorn Jagland made a statement for  media representatives and answered questions from journalists. During  the briefing, Pashinyan, in particular, stressed that the parties to  the Karabakh conflict should prepare each other for peace, not for  war. He stressed that the language of threats in the negotiations is  not acceptable.

At the same time, Pashinyan reiterated that the position of Armenian  Defense Minister David Tonoyan on the implementation of the principle  of "new war for new territories" does not contradict the policy of  peace:  "There should be no threat in relations between Armenia,  Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh. We must prepare each other for the  world. I hope our partners in Azerbaijan will accept this appeal.  Then we will have a completely different situation>, the Armenian  Prime Minister concluded.

After the briefing, Pashinyan presented Jagland with a memorable  letter on assigning one of the squares in the center of Yerevan to  the name of the square of Europe.