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.