Heritage Party MP Zaruhi Postanjyan has been removed from the main staff of the Armenian delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) losing the right to make speeches and voting there. The decision to exempt the outspoken deputy was made by Speaker of the National Assembly Hovik Abrahamyan.

The proportionality of the permanent four-member staff of PACE was broken after the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun became an opposition party. With the ARF switch, two PACE reps were from opposition (50 percent of the team), whereas the opposition representation must be no more than 15 percent.

Hence, one place of the opposition is given to the Orinats Yerkir (Country of Law) Party, and according to the decision, Artsruni Aghajanyan, Secretary of the Orinats Yerkir Faction, will replace Postanjyan.

“This is an entirely legal decision, because the Heritage Party has fewer mandates as compared with ARF; in this case Heritage must concede its place,” says Heghine Bisharyan, Chairwoman of the Orinats Yerkir Faction.

Postanjyan views the decision differently.

“This is evidently an illegal decision, which will be appealed in different instances, including in PACE. It is clear that the main reason of such decision is to make us keep silent,” Postanjyan tells ArmeniaNow. (At PACE, Postanjyan was expected to, again, raise the issue of “political prisoners” and of failed efforts to give an unbiased accounting of March 1, 2008 unrest, topics authorities would rather not have brought up.)

Further, Postanjyan insists that ARF’s positions concerning domestic politics issues are not oppositional, and they (ARF representatives) cannot present the “real opposition” at PACE.

Parents of the victims of the March 1-2 clashes sent a letter of complaint to the officials of the Council of Europe, stating that Heritage Party is the only one which voices their rights, and that ARF cannot be an opposition representative.

“ARF always had the opportunity to speak about the March 1-2 events and their consequences, however never did, simply because it was and is, most probably, part of both former and current authorities,” the parents’ statement says adding:

“If you (PACE) are interested in complex discussion of the Armenian issue, and the realization (of the content) of the documents adopted by you, then one of the best opportunities to prove that, is recovering Zaruhi Postanjyan’s status of a permanent member in the Armenian delegation (in PACE).”