Yesterday, after the adoption of the anti-Armenian report entitled “Rise in violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” by the PACE Committee on Political Affairs, member of the Armenian delegate Naira Zohrabyan announced that if the report is adopted in the plenary session, it will stay on the PACE shelves and will only damage the reputation of this structure.
Aravot.am asked the former head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Hovhannes Igityan whether the approval of this report will not have any effect. “Regardless of whether the resolution will have an effect or not, I consider such statements negative because they degrade the role of the PACE. In other words, if they want to have value and reputation in the PACE, they should not offend the European Council with such statements and shame their role,” he replied.
Yesterday, the release issued by the Council of Europe made it clear that the text of the report has become tougher. In particular, it includes calls about eliminating Armenia from the Minsk Group negotiation process on Nagorno-Karabakh and withdrawal of Armenian troops from Nagorno-Karabakh. We asked Hovhannes Igityan whether it was not worthwhile to cooperate with Walter on this matter and prevent the inclusion of such calls.
Mr. Igityan replied, “The rapporteur was to be substituted in the first phase because he has a pro-Azerbaijani mentality, the heading of the report was to be changed from the very beginning and if it was not successful, then it should be tries to cooperate with the rapporteur. To boycott the rapporteur without a political statement was a mistake. And it was clear that such a politics should lead to such consequences.”
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Referring to the tougher phrases included in the report, Hovhannes Igityan noted that the Armenian delegation’s mistake is apparent here too. “The demand of withdrawal of troops does not comply with the Minsk process and I think they mix it with another Minsk process, which refers to Ukraine. There is such an approach there. While in our process, the Minsk Group mission is aimed at the reconciliation of the 3 parties and clarifying the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Here, the Armenian delegation should work on and notify everybody about it during the session.”
Ashot ISRAELYAN
