The OSCE delegates have eventually expressed their tiredness of the mutual attacks and lack of dialogue culture of the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegates.
“Armenia is in a deep and complicated economic crisis”, stated Azerbaijani delegate to PACE Sevinj Fataliyeva, “Forbes has clearly stated that Armenia had the world’s second-worst economy after Madagascar. The constant population exodus is clear evidence of that problem, and the natural increase in the population is also slowing down.” This was the 6th such statement of the Azerbaijani delegation and Dick Marty (see the photo), the Chairperson of the Monitoring Committee of PACE, participating in the Assembly work as such for the last time, eventually complained from that rostrum that on any issue it seemed that Armenia and Azerbaijan would find an opportunity to attack each other. He said, “We are tired of you” and urged to establish a dialogue and “an effort to be made by the two countries to respect one another”. President of the session and Future President of PACE Jean-Claude Mignon said that although he could not applaud he wanted to, “I endorse all that you have said.”
After that the president said three written declarations of the Armenian and Azerbaijani delegates had been tabled.
The first one is “Armenia\’s policy towards undermining the solution of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh” and Ganira Pashayeva tabled it. Here it is said that Armenia organized municipal elections in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on September 18, “The elections strongly damage the very sensitive ongoing negotiation process between Azerbaijan and Armenia”, claim 20 delegates that signed the statement, the majority of which are Azerbaijanis or Turks and only 4 of them are from other countries, Georgia, Italy and Slovenia, “Consequently, we resolutely condemn the above-mentioned elections.”
The second document initiated by Ganira Pashayeva was signed by the same people. This time they claim that an explosive device installed on a toy by Armenians killed 13-year-old girl Aygun Shahmaliyeva.
“The Republic of mountainous Karabagh (Artsakh)” written statement tabled by Zaruhi Postanjyan was joined by another 31 delegates, only 6 of which are Armenians, and by the way, former co-rapporteur on Armenia Georges Colombier also signed the document. The document states, “Highly appreciating the results and the dynamics of democracy-building adopted as a development model by Artsakh and realizing the importance of the participation of the official delegates of Artsakh to the negotiations taking place within the context of the OSCE Minsk Group, we congratulate the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh on its 20th anniversary and call for close cooperation with its duly-elected authorities.”
In response to “Aravot’s” remark that such statements, nevertheless, remain only as a piece of paper, Zaruhi Postanjyan said, “In general, declarations are also called ‘soft law’. And such documents can change their power in the course of time, get stronger and become documents. This statement is very important, because there are people thinking like us who reckon that Artsakh has gone through the same processes as other republics and must be recognized as an independent state.” She also added that though 32 people had signed, but they had turned to much more delegates to join, “I give importance to this as means of propaganda too.”