On March 7 Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia received the delegation headed by Ambassador Mr. Peter Semneby, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus.

Mr. Tigran Torosyan, President of the National Assembly, greeted the guest and noted that the goal of the meeting was to discuss the post-electoral developments and the future steps to be taken:  unfortunately, the sorrowful events which took place on March 1^st   and the casualties caused did not fall within the framework of the electoral processes. The President of the National Assembly is for objective and adequate approach to these events, but disagrees with the sounded assessments that the authorities have applied force towards the peaceful demonstrators. Peaceful demonstrators do not build barricades and do not use weapons, do not use metal rods. During the illegal meetings the police has demanded to hold searches and in response there was violence. If the authorities could calmly wait for 9 days, not interfering into illegal meetings, they could have waited one more week till the decision of the Constitutional Court. The event could not have been an expression of public discontent, as there was a similar discontent it could have been displayed 8 months ago after the parliamentary elections, and during the passed period the condition was not worsened: in the contrary, the budget has been increased, also the salaries and pensions have been increased. And at last, even in the most difficult conditions similar events are not characteristic to the Armenian people, who are in a shock till now for the display of barbarism and vandalism. The President of the National Assembly also noted the steps which should be taken for the settlement of the condition - radical public-political reforms, events directed to the formation of the political organizations and the civil society, which will promote the establishment of full social justice, the base of which should be the cooperation of the political forces in the political sphere. Mr. Torosyan reminded that during the pre-electoral, as well as during the post-electoral period the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia was for the cooperation, which already had given their results, but still there is a lot to do. He emphasized the importance of dialogue and specification of the subject of cooperation, noting that the place for the criminals is the court, after the decision of which they should take their punishment, and there cannot be any subject of dialogue with them. It is impossible to create a precedent in the country when political or legal issues could be solved through such methods. The President of the National Assembly also expressed his disagreement for the assessments sounded several hours later, considering them careless, which  perhaps caused full late information.

The Ambassador Mr. Peter Semneby, EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus noted that the events in Armenia taken place during the last weeks were and remain in the center of attention of the European Union, as Armenia has become a partner of great importance for the EU. Mr. Peter Semneby assured that the EU wants to have its contribution in getting out the country from this situation. He considered undesirable the restrictions, believing that all the political forces should be involved in the settlements of the situation, to get rid of the state of emergency as soon as possible, the free activity of the mass media to be restored, the arrested persons of March 1^st to be freed. He expressed satisfaction that the Prime Minister, the elected President Serzh Sargsyan expressed readiness for cooperation with the opposition and noted the importance of the expansion of that cooperation. He assessed that for the full disclosure of the causes and consequences of the events and for preventing the further developments an investigation group should be created.

The President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan noted that he honoured and honours the political, radical views of the opposition but does not believe that burning vehicles is a form of display of a political position. Any criminal offence, whoever did it, should get his/her punishment. Touching upon Mr. Semneby’s proposal, the President of the National Assembly highlighted the specification of the goal of the activity of that group.

The sides also touched upon the deprivation of parliamentary immunity of the four MPs: Mr. Semneby noted that he wasn't aware of the details and qualified the step very serious and important, asking to explain the reasons. The President of the National Assembly Mr. Tigran Torosyan said that it has been already working 9 years in the parliament and during those years there were cases when the MPs were compelled to make such decisions. He reminded the case when Mr. Mushegh Movsisyan, condemned for the participation in the crime of October 27, was deprived from the parliamentary immunity and after some time later the deputy was set free and was gladly accepted in the parliament. The President of the National Assembly noted that though the National Assembly is not a judge and cannot decide whether one is criminal or not but it cannot fail in creating full opportunity for the full examination. The two deputies from the mentioned above are now in escape, and no one could guarantee that the other two would have done the same. The President of the National Assembly expressed hope that after a short time everything will be clarified and if the deputies have not committed a criminal crime they will be set free. Mr. Tigran Torosyan expressed readiness to meet once again and to discuss the issues emerged if necessary.