“Foreign policy differs from the domestic one. According to the PACE procedure, a question may take one minute, and let’s say, speaking in your language, you managed to give a “worthy counterattack” in a minute, this “worthy counterattack” is followed by a three-or five-minute unworthy assault on us. Is it what we want?”, so responded the Chairman of the ANC Committee on foreign relations, Vladimir Karapetyan, in the conversation with Aravot.am of whether the approach was right that the Armenian delegation did not give a worthy counterattack to Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev’s anti-Armenian speech in the PACE. On June 24, Azerbaijani President delivered an anti-Armenian speech by introducing Artsakh as an Azerbaijani territory occupied by Armenia, and he noted that allegedly Armenians had destroyed the Azerbaijani monuments and so on. But the PACE Armenian delegation members nowise responded to Aliyev. They were not registered in advance for asking a question. With this regard, in response to voiced criticism, the PACE Armenian delegation member, Hermine Naghdalyan, said that “It would not be right for the Armenian delegation to ask questions to Ilham Aliyev, because the answers given to the European delegations already evidenced that the matter is about an inadequate person. Asking questions under this situation would mean giving one more opportunity to distort public opinion and play regular campaign performance.” In the conversation with us, Vladimir Karapetyan mentioned that he does not want to protect Hermine Naghdalyan, and since he is not aware of the details, and the delegation is not be returned from Strasbourg, he will try to refrain from giving estimations to the behavior of the Armenian delegation in PACE, given some procedural specifications. Later, he noted, “Often it happens that considering your procedures in such matters, you make a decision based on the command of the moment. You see, I have no intention to protect Mrs. Naghdalyan, moreover, the woman speaks publicly about our victories over the years and does not appreciate the victory of Armenia, apparently also Artsakh issue, perhaps, she does not even know what it is. At the same time, given some procedural specifications, I would abstain from giving estimations for not being unprofessional.” It should be noted that the former head of the Armenian delegation in PACE, Hovhannes Igityan, came up with a criticism addressed to the Armenian delegation and condemned the silence of our delegates, noting that “they should perhaps come out of the room as a form of protest, or at least make a remark from their seats.” In response, the Armenian delegation member to PACE, RPA member, Naira Karapetyan, noted, “Should we have the goal to make a noise, we could have come out of the room, thrown something in the direction of Aliyev, or whistle.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
