Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan left for France to attend the PACE fall session in Strasbourg. Meetings with French leader Francois Hollande and Senate President Jean-Pierre Bel are on Sargsyan’s agenda.

The Armenian leader will also meet PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon, Council of Europe Secretary Thorbjorn Jagland and Coe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks October 2 in Strasbourg. On the same day, the President will deliver a speech at a PACE session to be followed by a Q&A session.

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will hold rush debates on Syria October 3, Thursday. Alexey Pushkov, head of the Russian delegation to PACE, told journalists that “as expected, PACE has made a decision to hold rush debates on Syria,” adding that the Assembly will adopt a resolution on the Syrian issue.

“Syria is a key issue in world politics and, undoubtedly, PACE has to adopt its own resolution,” Pushkov previously said. The Russian lawmaker believes that there has been a major “evolution on the Syrian issue” in Strasbourg. “Two years ago the dominating point of view saw the military conflict as a democratic revolution, people fighting a tyrant; but now the point of view changed to align with Russia’s arguments,” he said.

Pushkov said that during the previous session of the Assembly Bureau in Croatia, lawmakers agreed that the Syrian problem required a political solution, not military intervention, noting that using chemical weapons was impermissible by any side of the conflict.