OSCE PA Young Delegates Discuss Challenges Aimed at Democracy, Issues on the Role of Youth in Containment-Based Security Threat

• 11.14.2022, 12:00
•  Europe,  World,  Armenia

On November 13, in the RA National Assembly the OSCE PA young delegates were hosted. The OSCE PA network of young parliamentarians is newly created, and it was formed at the beginning of this year. This is the fourth meeting of the delegates, which is held in our country.

Armenia has the second youngest parliament in the world after Norway. In the OSCE PA the delegation of Armenia is the youngest one, which is conditioned by the representation of the young members in our parliament.

“We as parliamentarians, have put a problem before us to turn that feature to an advantage and establish communication through this network with the young parliamentarians of other countries as political figures and young parliamentarians, see what commonalities we have and how we can serve them for our joint goals,” the member of the RA NA delegation to the OSCE PA Maria Karapetyan underlined.

After the meeting with the NA President Alen Simonyan at the meeting through a video conference the OSCE PA President Margareta Cederfelt welcomed the young MPs. She reaffirmed that the meetings of such format only boost the inter-parliamentary relations, As the OSCE PA President assured, besides the platform of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, it is necessary to use also other international platforms to discuss the security issues existing in different regions, to underline the role of the democratic values, to exchange ideas on the problems of climate change.

The President of the Assembly expressed hope that similar meetings would promote that the young MPs of the PA member countries will be more involved in different initiatives.

Afterwards the participants of the meeting discussed the threats aimed at democracy in the OSCE region and issues on security challenges.

Maria Karapetyan referred to democracy and security challenges in terms of both the problems of the region and our country. “Sometimes an attempt is to persuade our society that the democracy and security contradict each other that we have been mistaken choosing democratic election. I have an opposite opinion. We would not have the security problems that we have, if really had chosen the path of democracy since gaining independence, building institutes and ensuring the democratic processes,” the young parliamentarian expressed such an opinion. According to her, democracy ensures for a long-term the internal confrontation, the democratic societies, in general are more protected with respect to internal and external challenges. To Maria Karapetyan ‘s conviction, it is important for Armenia to choose democracy as an internal government means, which will ensure the peaceful coexistence of our country in the region for a long time.

A reference was made to the role of the young political figures and parliamentarians in the process of the containment of current security threats. The member of the RA NA delegation to the OSCE PA Hripsime Grigoryan, today more than ever, the role of the youth is important also in the decision-making process. According to the MP, the young political figures in our country, and in this respect, the cooperation with the MPs of other states is important, as the problems are of the same character, the challenges as well. Hripsime Grigoryan evaluated the young parliamentarians’ continuous meetings and such discussions on different issues, which can be an effective platform for the solution of the abovementioned problems.

The member of the RA NA delegation to the OSCE PA Sargis Khandanyan also highlighted the discussion of the security problems in this format, stressing that the OSCE region is before the security challenges.

Then a meeting took place with the representatives of the NGOs being engaged with the youth issues in Armenia, and they try to contribute to the development of the democratic institutes with their activities.

Sargis Khandanyan underscored the role of the civil society in the young people becoming political figures.

The issues on raising the role of the youth and their participation in the political processes were discussed. Views were exchanged on the possibilities of the international development cooperation with the parliamentary colleagues.