YEREVAN, APRIL 25, ARMENPRESS. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe degraded Turkey’s status to ‘under monitoring’.

113 delegated of various countries of PACE voted in favor of the decision, 45 voted against and 12 abstained.

The monitoring status for Turkey was removed in 2004.

The PACE decision mentions for continuing cooperation with Turkey it is necessary that the country fulfils the proposals.

PACE rapporteurs Marianne Mikko and Ingebjørg Godskesen strictly criticized Turkey’s decisions in the state of emergency conditions, which has been extended for three times already after the attempted coup. They mentioned it damages the democratic institutions of Turkey.

Samvel Farmanyan, Armenia’s delegate to PACE, commented on the voting result, saying: “PACE, with an absolute majority of votes, decided to return Turkey to its previous status of ‘under monitoring’, regarding the worsening situation of democracy and human rights in the country. This is a very serious political decision. Turkey, prior to the voting, declared it would consider the appropriateness of suspending its membership to the EC in this case. Another round of sharp Turkey-Europe conflict is ensured”.