An Armenian refugee from Sumgait is not able to participate in Azerbaijan's local self-government elections either," said Mayor of Yerevan Gagik Beglaryan in response to the comment by a Turkish delegate of the CE Congress according to which Azerbaijani refugees are not able to take part in elections in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Gagik Beglaryan wasn't asked many questions after his speech on the status of capitals in the South Caucasus. After the heated discussion on local self-government elections in Azerbaijan, many people left the hall and the discussion on Azerbaijan was so long that Gagik Beglaryan participated in the discussion for 20 minutes after his arrival.
A Swiss delegate asked Gagik Beglaryan whether cooperation with Baku was possible or not. Reminding that Yerevan has over 30 sister cities, Gagik Beglaryan said: "We are open to cooperation with all cities." One of the Congress delegates asked whether Beglaryan had sufficient powers, to which Beglaryan gave a positive response.
Gagik Beglaryan assured that the May 31 mayor elections in Yerevan and his visit to the Congress are the symbol of "Yerevan's integration into the large family of European communities."
"It is a great honor for me to represent the 2,791-year old Yerevan at the CE Congress as mayor of Yerevan," said Gagik Beglaryan. He informed that the first "French-Armenian Forum for Decentralized Cooperation" will be held in Yerevan in the fall and invited the official delegation of the Congress to participate in the event. Beglaryan recalled that activities were not fruitful in the past due to the division of Yerevan in 12 districts. He also announced that he has had the honor of being elected head of the Kentron district of Yerevan through elections three times in a row.
"It was public confidence that allowed me to head the pre-electoral list of the Republican Party of Armenia in the elections for Council of Elders of Yerevan on May 31, 2009 and get elected as mayor of Yerevan," said Beglaryan.
Beglaryan didn't talk about specific issues, but mentioned that Armenia has a long way to go in order to implement effective local self-government based on civil participation. There are issues relating to updating and raising the quality of infrastructures.
Mr. Beglaryan also proposed to organize a summit of capitals of EU-member countries in 2012 and mentioned that he had presented a pool of questions that characterize capitals of the South Caucasus based on the example of Yerevan.
After the official dinner, Gagik Beglaryan will have a number of meetings with CE officials. His arrival sparked an interesting reaction when a Kurdish delegate approached him and said that his wife was from Yerevan.
Mayor of Odessa Edward Gurvitz had organized a special ceremony on the first floor for exchanging gifts with the mayor of the sister city Yerevan.