Statement In Reply to the President of the OSCE PA, Christine Muttonen delivered by Ambassador Arman Kirakossian at the 1116th Meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council

27 October, 2016

Mr. Chairman,

We would like to warmly welcome the distinguished President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Ms. Christine Muttonen and thank her for sharing with us her vision on the role of the parliamentary diplomacy in tackling the security challenges in the OSCE area and beyond and cooperation between the PA and the OSCE executive structures.

At the outset we would like to congratulate you, Madam President on the election to the post of the PA President and wish you all success in leading the largest regional parliamentary organization.

Armenia values the role of the Parliamentary Assembly as a forum for dialogue between representatives of peoples in the entire OSCE area, which may supplement and reinforce the activities of the OSCE participating States and OSCE Secretariat and Institutions.

When it comes to protracted conflicts strong and unequivocal support of the Parliamentary Assembly to the efforts of the agreed negotiation formats and clear condemnation of the attempts to use force would be positive contribution. We noted that the PA in its Tbilisi Declaration expressed concern over the military escalation in the NK conflict zone and encouraged reaching an agreement on confidence building measures to reduce the risk for further hostilities.

In this context we appreciate the stance of PA for respect and realization of the basic human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons living in conflict zones, an important message to those participating States, which attempt to isolate and dehumanize the people striving to determine their future free from external interference.

Initiatives to imply parliamentary diplomacy tools, including organizing discussions with parties to the conflicts may be valuable if they are of inclusive nature, involving also elected representatives of peoples, engaged in conflicts

Madam President,

We took note that the ongoing migration and refugee crisis is also in the area of focus of the PA, which stressed the importance of open and secure borders and called on the OSCE participating States to immediately stop imposing legal and physical barriers to the movement of people fleeing from violence including identity based crimes.

We welcome consistency of the Parliamentary Assembly in addressing the root causes of the ongoing crisis. In its 2014 Declaration the PA called the OSCE pS to prevent the use of their territories by terrorist and fundamentalist groups for cross-border attacks against civilian populations, including religious and ethnic minorities in Syria. This important message was supplemented by the acknowledgment of the important role that parliamentarians play in efforts to prevent genocide by condemning past genocides and raising their voices against ongoing massive and grave human rights violations, particularly against Christians and other ethnic and religious minorities in Syria and Iraq.

In conclusion, we would like to voice our support to you, Madam President and wish all success in your future activities.

Thank You.

MFA RA
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