The members of the fourth National Assembly were supposed to attend the Organization of Security and Cooperation of Europe’s PA session in Monaco, the head of Armenia’s delegation to the Assembly told Tert.am.

Artashes Geghamyan said that he had to leave for Monacco as the delegation could not participate in the meeting without a leader.

“Since the former chief of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Aram Safaryan, was not elected, the delegation could not attend the meeting without a leader. That is why, we primarily solved that problem, coordinating the issue with the Assembly, and I went there together with a representative of the former delegation,” he told Tert.am

The head of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, David Harutyunyan, had earlier told Tert.am that it is a common practice for old delegations to attend the PA sessions within a period of six months after the election of a new parliament.

According to an official statement on the National Assembly’s website, Vahan Hovhannisyan of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun faction, Khachik Harutyunyan (Rule of Law party) and a former foreign minister of Armenia, Alexander Arzumanyan ,are replacing the delegation’s permanent members at the meeting.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly held its session in Monaco from July 5 to 9. Its next meeting is scheduled in Albania early in October.

Geghamyan, who heads the National Unity party, said he would very much like the leader of the People’s Party of Armenia (a political party represented in the opposition alliance Armenian National Congress), Stepan Demirchyan, to attend the meeting to voice what he called his decisive opinion on the subject matter.

He said further that it would be as pleasing for him to see Vahan Hovhannisyan, and the ex-foreign ministers, Vardan Oskanyan and Alexander Arzumanyan, at the next session in Albania.

Tert.am learned on Saturday that neither Demirchyan nor Oskanyan (now a member of the Prosperous Armenia party) had been informed of the recent meeting. Both politicians later confirmed the report, speaking to our correspondent. Instead a former member of the Republican Party faction, Artak Davtyan had left for Monacco together with Geghamyan