Five in one: 'Surprises' awaiting Armenian delegates ahead of PACE winter session
Two more anti-Armenian measures have appeared on the agenda of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), which is meeting in January for its winter session.
Robert Walter’s report, entitled “Escalation of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and Other Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan”, and Milica Markovic’s report on the Sarsang reservoir add to the existing three “unpleasant surprises” to be considered at the meeting.
First, Pedro Agramunt, a Spanish parliamentarian who chairs the EPP-CD Group, has high chances to be elected the PACE president. At its autumn session from September 28 until October 2, the Assembly officially approved his candidacy with 72 votes “in favor”.
Agramunt was the assemblymember who had earlier sought to include the phrase “occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh” in a report addressing the situation of democracy institutions in Azerbaijan.
Another unpleasant surprise is the possible election of Samed Seyidov, the head of Azerbaijan’s delegation, as the leader of the European Conservative Group (he became the corresponding parliamentary faction’s acting chairman after Christopher Chope of the United Kingdom was recalled by Prime Minister David Cameron).
His chances of election are thought to be realistic given that the political faction is composed mainly of Turkish and Azerbaijani members and representatives of the United Kingdom.
Also, Walter’s report contains a clause proposing sanctions against the Armenian delegates for a failure to assist in the document’s drafting.
What tactics should the Armenian side adopt: to boycott the session or nonetheless decide not to skip the meeting?
Speaking to Tert.am, a representative of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Naira Karpetyan (Republican parliamentary faction) said that the members are fully aware of the expected challenges and not absolutely despaired ahead of the meeting. But she refrained from unveiling further details.
“There are foreign policy issues which, very often, are not subject to publication,” she explained.
“All the delegation members – apart from just a couple of people – are working with colleagues and delegates having good connections to explain the unacceptability of the report.”
The plans for boycotting the session depend on the Social Affairs Committee’s Tuesday decision (whether to include the controversial report in the January session agenda or reject it), a source close to the PACE told our correspondent.
Commenting on Milica Markovic’s report, Naira Zohrabyan, another Armenian delegate to the Assembly (Prosperous Armenia), said she finds its scenario identical with that of Walter’s report.
“As you are aware, the authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh have expressed their readiness to host Milica Markovic. On November 23, however, that lady is going to introduce a report on a problem she hasn’t seen personally. But it isn’t absolutely surprising to me as Markovic, geographically, has no idea about Nagorno-Karabakh. When talking to us, that lady made a very absurd remark by asking whether one hour would be enough for her to get to the Sarsang reservoir ‘after I get off at the Yerevan airport’.”
According to Armen Rustamyan (ARF-D parliamentary faction), who also represents Armenia at the PACE, it is first of all necessary to prevent Walter’s report from turning into a resolution. “Every cloud has a silver lining. This document is so biased that it spots the PACE’s reputation and impacts the OSCE Minsk Group process aimed at the settlement of the [Nagorno-Karabakh] conflict. Armenia is not going to undertake additional commitments with respect to that document. The debate is unlawful from start to end, with Nagorno-Karabakh not being involved [in the process].”
The Armenian delegate said he doesn’t consider a boycott unexpected. “I don’t know; it is possible to discuss that, as this is an organization which proclaims support for Azerbaijan as its objective … The same is the situation at the Islamic Conference, where Armenia has no presence,” he added.
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