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On October 21, within the framework of the European Conference of Presidents of Parliament of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) the RA NA President Alen Simonyan had a meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe (CoE) Maria Pejčinović Burić.

Thanking the CoE Secretary General for the meeting, the RA NA President noted that this year turned 20 years of Armenia’s membership to the Council of Europe, highlighting the cooperation with the Council of Europe and the support of the organization to the process of democratic reforms going on in our country.

He highly assessed the role of the CoE and PACE monitoring structures in strengthening democracy in Armenia and the work done within the framework of the initiated reforms. Alen Simonyan touched upon the observation of the snap parliamentary elections held in Armenia in June 2021 and the given high evaluation.

The sides referred to the large scale war unleashed against Artsakh by Azerbaijan and the post-war situation. Alen Simonyan has stressed that Azerbaijan continues holding Armenian prisoners of war and the civilians in hostage, and initiating false criminal proceedings. The Speaker of the legislative body underlined the necessity of keeping this problem in the centre of attention by PACE.

Issues regarding human rights and democracy were discussed.