YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–The regular plenary session of the CE Parliamentary Assembly and the last PACE session of this century was held in Strasbourg from September 24 to 29. An Armenian parliamentary delegation also participated in the session.
Talking to Noyan Tapan–member of the Armenian delegation–Head of the Public Relations Department–Armenian National Assembly–Shmavon Shahbazian said that the session agenda included the issues of presidential election in Yugoslavia and the settlement of the Chechen conflict.
CE Secretary General Walter Schwimmer–reporter on Chechnya–Lord Jadd–and other officials who visited Moscow a week before the session presented the results of the hearing of the issue of Chechnya in the Russian Duma. They stated that positive changes can be observed in the settlement process. The hopeful aspect is the very fact that the hearing was held at all–as well as the sincere discussion of the issue by Russian parliamentarians and criticism leveled at the military.
A number of statesmen and political figures were present–including the President of Italy–German Chancellor–and an OSCE Chairperson-in-Office.
Shahbazian pointed out that the Armenian–Azerbaijanian and Georgian parliamen’s are cooperating under PACE’s auspices. During the session–the working group of the cooperation held meetings and decided to postpone regional seminars.
The seminars on the cooperation in culture–education and refugee situation will be held in Yerevan and Baku after parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan on November 5.