Bosnia delegate Milica Markovic is preparing a report about the Sarsang reservoir located in Nagorno-Karabakh without at least once visiting the Nagorno-Karabakh.
Azerbaijan continues raising the issue of the Sarsang reservoir at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Note that the members of the Azerbaijani delegation do not miss almost a session not to raise this issue, complaining that the Armenian side does not allow the Azerbaijani people to use the reservoir and so on. Now, the PACE Social Commission is considering the issue of the Sarsang reservoir and it will be discussed again in the September 13 session of the Commission in Paris.
In the interview with “Aravot”, PACE Armenian delegation member Vahan Babayan informed that this report, which is put in discussion is quite dangerous, and he will deliver a speech at the September 13 session. In this regard, he explained, “We had agreed during the last session that the speaker, the Bosnia delegate Milica Markovic, should visit Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, and then prepare a report rather than preparing the report without visiting. However, at the moment, it is still the situation that we have no specific answer to this question.” Another member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, leader of the Prosperous Party of Armenia, Naira Zohrabyan, in an interview with us, said that even the NA PAP MP Levon Khachatryan has expressed willingness to personally host Ms. Markovic, but to no avail.
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Naira Zohrabyan explained, “Milica Markovic is so far stubbornly sure that the reservoir is located in Armenia. For a long time, we tried to explain that it is located in Karabakh, but it turns out that the woman’s geographical abilities are strongly limited because she is sure that it is in Armenia. Parliamentarian Levon Khachatryan has expressed his willingness to accompany Markovic to Aparan reservoir, when the latter arrives in Armenia and if it is sufficient to write down a report on Sarsang reservoir, then “No Comment.” And yet after all, Azerbaijan is constantly manipulating the issue of the Sarsang reservoir. For example, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has complained to Milica Markovic that “the Azerbaijani population of the border zone are deprived of the opportunity of using the Sarsang reservoir located in Karabakh, Armenians do not allow.”
Vahan Babayan described it as a blackmail and emphasized, “We have repeatedly raised this issue. We have announced that it is a lie, one of the most serious examples of blackmail and lie that without visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, they declare that the Sarsang Reservoir causes problems, and they try to present it in their own way.” To our observation that the European delegates seem to have quite serious attitude to Azerbaijan’s complaints and are not particularly interested in being involved in the issue and to visit Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr. Babayan responded, “Many people have rather bad sentiment as a result of caviar diplomacy, but the RA delegation still manages to maintain the overwhelming real opinions. I am going to make a pretty serious speech at the September 13 session. Of course, we do it at every session, every time we urge to visit Nagorno-Karabakh to get the answers to all questions, but as you can see, there is no news yet on this issue, maybe I can say something new after September 13, when I return from Paris”.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN,
“Aravot” daily
