As we have informed, there will be a report in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) entitled, “Rise in violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan”. We have also informed that the Armenian delegation to PACE refused to cooperate in the preparation of the report on Karabakh. In this sense, the tension is so aggravated that our parliamentarians began to talk about termination of cooperation of the National Assembly and PACE.
Chairman of RA NA Foreign Relations Committee, Artak Zakaryan, announces, “At this point, I will find it difficult to give a clear answer on what will happen then, but one thing is obvious: if PACE continues preparing a report with such wording, it will definitely have its negative impact on the OSCE Minsk Group peace process, too.” Whether the decision of failure to cooperate by the Armenian delegation was right and whether we should cease cooperating with PACE. With regard to this question, we talked to Ara Ghazaryan, one of the candidates nominated by Armenia for the position of judge for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), also human rights activist of the “Rule of Law” NGO, also participants of “Forum” Law Center. Generally, in Europe, when a document is passed, its goal is not to punish a country but to help it to stand up and eliminate the violations. If a document referring to any industry is signed, it applies to all member states. I repeat again, the goal is not to punish.”
To our question of what the wording of “occupied” territories mean in this case, Mr. Ghazaryan answered, “I’m also wondering what kind of violations it is about. This is a political document adopted by a political body. Let the report be and then we will discuss. But the policy of European instances are not designed for punishing.” In response to the political question for failure to cooperate, Mr. Ghazaryan said, “They are politicians and are thinking in political category. I am thinking in human rights and legal category, and I think that failure to cooperate is wrong.”
Ara Ghazaryan reminded that a three-time yellow card is shown to Armenia at the PACE with regard to events of 2002 and 2004, and continued, “At that time, I was thinking that they might deprive Armenia from the accession. But the experienced politicians were saying that Europe is employing the principle that they will learn with us better than without us and do not freeze the relationship.” Mr. Ghazaryan said we should not go to panic with regard to the report on Karabakh, but to become familiar with the matters of the choice.
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
