A day before, the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) passed the Head of the Ukrainian delegation to PACE, Volodymyr Ariev’s report “Attacks against journalists and media freedom in Europe.” Paragraph 9 of the report reads, “The Assembly furthermore notes with deep concern that the protection of media freedom under Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights is also absent in other territories of member States which are de facto controlled by separatist regimes, namely in Nagorno-Karabakh of Azerbaijan, Abkhazia and South Ossetia of Georgia and Transnistria of the Republic of Moldova. Therefore, the Assembly pays particular tribute to the few investigative journalists who dare to shed light on the situation in those otherwise totally non-transparent and lawless areas.” Although the Armenian delegation had offered to remove this provision that has nothing to do with the theme of the report, however, the majority of PACE delegates refused.
Aravot.am asked the expert and political analyst of the Institute for International and Security Affairs, Armen Vardanyan, about the reason that such cases are becoming more frequent in the PACE, recall Walter’s and Sarsang water reservoir reports where there was a provision on occupied territories, and one year has not elapsed since then, Mr. Vardanyan replied, “As the main reason, I will mention the composition of our delegation and the unsatisfactory work conducted by them. The delegates representing Armenia to PACE are not influential and are unable to prevent the adoption of such resolutions. They also lack the appropriate skills to work with European lawmakers. Head of the Armenian delegation, Hermine Naghdalyan, is a member of the Armenian-Russian “Griboyedov” Club, and naturally, it cannot have a positive impact on Armenia. No less important is the fact that the Armenian delegation to PACE has repeatedly voted against the resolutions against Russia which could not but cause the anger of delegates from many countries. Ultimately, the third reason is the Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy which the members of our delegation rightly insist. In recent years, Azerbaijan allocates substantial funds to bribe some deputies in the PACE and for passing anti-Armenian reports.”
Armen Vardanyan agreed that there is also the issue of bribery to some PACE members which plays an important role in passing not Armenophile reports, “Earlier, President of PACE Pedro Agramunt, Italian MP Luca Volontè and others were accused by Azerbaijan of taking bribes but the Armenian side not only failed punishing them and they continue to hold their positions. Hence, Azerbaijani caviar diplomacy cannot be considered the only reason for it.”
Back to Ariyev’s anti-Armenian provision in the report, the political analyst noted, “Nothing is said about the fact that Armenia has always voted against the resolutions presented by the Ukrainian side and has protected the Russian side. It does not also say that EPP is the biggest party presented in the Council of Europe and RPA, RoL, and Heritage political parties from Armenia are a member to EPP, while there is no party from Azerbaijan as a member of this faction. Maybe our esteemed delegates would rather work with the EPP? The same notorious Volontè is also a member of this organization. The There are several representatives of EPP member organizations who among 96 delegated voted against the proposal of the Armenian delegation to review this report.”
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To the question about the harm of such reports to RA foreign diplomacy, although it has been repeatedly mentioned that they are not mandatory, Mr. Vardanyan replied, “PACE reports are not mandatory but are more of an advisory, however, on the other hand, we cannot say that they do not mean anything. If they were not important, Azerbaijan would not spend millions of dollars for the lobbying to pass them. Aliyev is always trying to show the whole world that authoritarian regime functions in Nagorno-Karabakh and the human rights situation is very bad there and so on. No less important is the fact that Azerbaijan often cites to this report when doing something against Nagorno-Karabakh. Rumors circulate that Azerbaijan by leashing a war against Artsakh last April intended to occupy the Sarsang reservoir and its surrounding villages, and as a justification of its actions, Azerbaijan had to cite to the famous report on Sarsang reservoir. Let us not forget also that President of PACE Pedro Agramunt made a statement justifying Azerbaijan’s aggression on April 3. Mr. Agramunt always acts for the advancement of the interests of Azerbaijan.”
