The following was released by the Council of Europe’s Directorate of Communications

The PACE co-rapporteurs for the monitoring of Armenia, Giuseppe Galati (Italy, EPP/CD) and Yuliya Lovochkina (Ukraine, SOC), have issued the following statement regarding recent political developments in the country.

“We welcome the courageous decision of Prime Minister Sargsyan to resign from his post in order to defuse the mounting tensions in the country. We hope that this will lead to a new and constructive dialogue between all political forces in the country with the aim of finding a lasting solution to the current situation, in line with the relevant Constitutional provisions,” said the co-rapporteurs.

Meanwhile, they stressed that all who were detained while peacefully demonstrating should be released and the right to peaceful assembly should be fully respected. At the same time, they expressed concern at reports from the Ombudsman of increased hate speech and even incitement to violence against individuals on social media and called for the fundamental rights of all citizens to be respected.

The co-rapporteurs announced that they will continue to follow developments in Yerevan closely.