Members of the Armenian delegation of PACE. (Source: Armenpress)
YEREVAN (Armenpress) — According to Armenian delegate to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Nairia Zohrabyan, the arguments made by Milicia Markovic that the Armenian side allegedly hampered her visit to Artsakh are a total lie.
Head of the “Prosperous Armenia” political party, Zohrabyan brought up Markovic’s reaction when asked to visit Armenia or Karabakh. “We not only recommended the honorable lady to visit, but we met with her under different formats and platforms inviting her to Nagorno Karabakh Republic, with any reasonable conditions, but she declined the invitations for different reasons. We possess the internet conversation with her, which we can publicize, documenting the fact that the lady was not inclined to hearing adequate argumentations to visit,” said Zohrabyan.
In the words of Zohrabyan, they met Milica Markovic prior to the session, introducing facts that the PACE charter has been violated, and stating that that she had to have visited Artsakh, but Markovic said that she was going to defend the report anyway.
Another member of the delegation, Naira Karapetyan, said that Markovic was so unaware of Nagorno Karabakh’s location, that she asked if it is possible to reach the Sarsang Reservoir from Zvartnots International Airport by car within one hour.
Head of the Armenian delegation to the PACE Hermine Naghdalyan mentioned that the report on the Sarsang Reservoir had more political connotation rather than dealing with water problems of Azerbaijani villagers.
Meanwhile, the Armenian delegation of PACE aims at acting by principle this principle,“Any issue related to Artsakh can be discussed and solved only by the participation of Artsakh.” In addition, work is being done to create cooperation with Artakh’s members of parliament within the frames of PACE formats, Naghdalyan announced.
“We did not give any retreats in this regard. Our policy in PACE was and remains the line on discussing all the issues related to Artsakh only by the participation of Artsakh. In our speeches and in all possible platforms we speak of cooperation with Artsakh parliamentarians and using the special formats of PACE,” Naghdalyan said citing the example of PACE collaboration with Kosovo, Palestine and other countries.
Referring to the 2 anti-Armenian reports and the work carried out by the delegation, Naghdalyan noticed that particularly Walter’s report tended to have a large and dangerous political role.
Naghdalyan mentioned that negotiation failures in the format of Minsk Group and the loss of hope on adopting pro-Azerbaijani principles and definitions made Azerbaijan to prepare such report. In these circumstances they try to initiate any move that could lead to a change of the situation. PACE adopts resolution of the issues by a simple majority, meaning that it was the first and conducive platform for them,” Naghdalyan added.
On January 26, PACE refused to adopt draft resolution on “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” by rapporteur Robert Walter (no longer a PACE member). 66 MPs voted for, 70 – against the report. However, PACE adopted rapporteur MilicaMarković’s (Bosnia and Herzegovina) draft resolution on “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water” after making some changes and revisions to the draft. 98 MPs voted for, 71 – against. 40 MPs abstained.
Source: Asbarez
Link: Anti-Armenian Report at PACE Purely Political