According to the former head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, one of the reasons causing this situation was the incorrect selection of the head of the Armenian delegation.
On January 25, the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) will be launched in Strasburg. Two anti-Armenian reports are included in the agenda: “Rise in violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” and “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water”. One of this refers to Nagorno-Karabakh and the other to the Sarsang reservoir. According to the former head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Hovhannes Igityan, people who master the material and the language should attend the negotiations.
A short and clear reference should be prepared, which will state the situation and the Minsk Group co-chairs’ view, which will be distributed among the PACE deputies. “Let them not justify ahead of the time that everybody at the PACE are corrupt. They are normal and intelligent people. It is not good to accuse people in advance. Armenia claims that everybody there is corrupt with oil dollars without mentioning specific people. If it reaches any PACE deputies, he will feel offended. Or, it is contemptuous that Armenia at the highest levels state that the PACE resolutions have no legal force. In this case, what is the sense of working there? In fact, they have legal force, they are even equal to the UN resolutions. Eventually, deputies from other countries are sitting there, and the executive body involves Foreign Affairs’ Ministers. Ultimately, it is the viewpoint of more than forty countries.”
To the question of whether eventually the Commission will pass these resolutions in the January session, Mr. Igityan replied, “A lot depends on the conduct of the Armenian delegation. If the issue of the mandate of the Russian delegation is discussed, and our delegation assumes the role of Russia’s attorney and we have more pro-Russian stance than Sergey Lavrov, then the majority of the delegates will vote for any anti-Armenian resolution.”
Hovhannes Igityan noted that the tide of the anti-Armenian reports rose especially after Armenia’s accession to the Eurasian Economic Union. To our observation that the majority of the PACE delegates are members of the EPP, and the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, regularly attends the EPP summits, so whether the leader of the country had nothing to do on this matter and whether he could not prevent the proposal of these reports, Mr. Igityan replied, “Let us not talk only about Serge Sargsyan. Look at what ambitions the Azerbaijani delegates have: Deputy Chairman, Head of the Commission. I do not think that the Armenian delegates display such activeness. Indeed, Serge Sargsyan had a chance but, on the other hand, Armenia is everywhere viewed as a part of Russia, as once a Turkish high-rank official used to say that we need to negotiate on Karabakh not with Armenia but Russia.”
We were curious to know whether the petition in Armenia against the anti-Armenian reports in the PACE winter session is an effective form of struggle, Mr. Igityan replied, “If it were a petition in the European countries, it would play a role, it would be the pressure of electorates over the deputies, or the Ministry of Diaspora would organize the Armenian community. Even if 200-300 protesting people are gathered in front of the PACE office in Strasbourg, it would have a bigger role. After all, the unity of the Armenian nation is determined only by the centenary, the Diaspora is not only for fundraising. This, eventually, is a question of dignity, justice and Nagorno-Karabakh.”
Mr. Igityan opines that we have reached the situation because of a number of omissions. One of them is the selection of the delegation staff and especially the Chairman. According to him, there is nothing to get offended but Hermine Naghdalyan, who is implementing tremendous organizational work at the RA NA, is unable to carry out her commitments at the PACE as appropriate. We were curious to know whom he sees in this position, Mr. Igityan listed some names, “For example, Alexander Arzumanyan with his great experience, Vardan Oskanian with his knowledge, Armen Rustamyan from Dashnaktsutyun with his experience. Or, Artak Zakaryan who is totally engaged in foreign affairs. It is nothing to be offended. Each one has its own orientation and the degree of busyness. It is also about the opposition not to use the PACE platform for only “Serzh, go away!”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN, “Aravot” daily
