Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan. (Source: Armenpress)
YEREVAN (ArmInfo News Agency) —Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan discussed the irrelevance of Patriarch Kirill’s statement, and told reporters on January 14 that Armenia has taken action against the anti-Armenian resolutions included in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
According to Kocharyan, the statement of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, who said that the Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire were not annihilated, was irrelevant.
“Though the given statement was followed by the Russian Orthodox Church’s explanations, nevertheless, I think that the statement was irrelevant”, he said.
To note, the Christmas interview of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, in which he said that the Christian minorities were not annihilated in Ottoman Turkey, caused serious discontent in the public and political circles of Armenia. Afterwards the Russian Orthodox Church made clarifications saying that the stand of the Russian Orthodox Church on the matter of the Armenian Genocide remains unchanged. “Our church’s stand on the issue of the Armenian Genocide has repeatedly been expressed in numerous official statements and addresses of the Patriarch. The vivid evidence of our stance is the Russian Orthodox Church’s participation in the important events of the Armenian Apostolic Church at the highest level – the Patriarch’s participation in the consecration of the Armenian cathedral in Moscow, the visit of the Russian Church’s delegation to Yerevan and participation in the Armenian Genocide Centenary events last year,” the head of the patriarchal press office said.
The head of the press office of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Vahram Melikyan, said that the clarification was issued in response to the request of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. “The Russian Orthodox Church has always supported the process of recognition of the Armenian Genocide. One thing is clear – one should not politicize the issue, because one cannot judge about the stand of the church by one statement taken out of the context, especially as that Church has repeatedly expressed its stand and supported Armenian people, Armenian church and our motherland,” he said.
Following the discussion of the Russian Patriarch, Kocharyan went on to explain the issues involved PACE and what steps Armenia will take against the anti-Armenian resolutions. He stated, “Of course, we realize that there is a deep rooted disease in the European Council. People who have become the target of Azerbaijani policy do not form a majority at all. And the problem is that they want to include the deputies forming majority, in anti-Armenian activities.”
Kocharyan mentioned that he did not want to make any predictions on the outcome of the Armenian efforts, but wanted to stress that work is definitely in progress by the Armenian side.
4789 people already joined the internet voting against 2 Anti-Armenian reports during the agenda of the winter session of the PACE and the mentioned number is growing every minute.
The petition is conducted in Change.org website. The voting will continue until January 26, 2016 when the discussion of 2 Anti-Armenian reports will launch in the PACE plenary session.
One of the authors of the reports is Robert Walter (UK). The report’s title is “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
The other report refers to the Sarsang reservoir which the rapporteur is Milica Marković (Bosnia and Herzegovina). It is called “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water.”
Kocharyan also told reporters that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s statement that the latest meeting with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian was formal demonstrates the real attitude of Baku towards the negotiations, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and basic principles of the conflict settlement.
He thinks it is this stance of Baku that has hindered any progress in the Karabakh peace process for years. The progress in the talks depends on the progress in the parties’ stands rather than on the intensification of the process, he said.
Kocharyan said that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs’ efforts to ensure progress in the talks and organize meetings of the parties will give no results if Baku keeps behaving the same way as during the latest meeting of the presidents in Bern. “I think the co-chairs and the international community should again discuss the current situation, analyze it and change it to a certain extent, because under the current circumstances it is impossible to achieve progress,” he said.
He added that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are also concerned as they try to find the ways out of the current situation. At the latest meeting of the presidents in Bern, they pointed out the need to take preventive measures to reduce the number of incidents on the line of contact of the Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijani troops.
“However, if the co-chairs fail to succeed, new approaches should be displayed – either enforcement measures should be taken against Azerbaijan or the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic should be recognized,” said Kocharyan.
Source: Asbarez
Link: Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Responds to Russian Patriarch and Anti-Armenian Reports