PACE Monitoring Committee new Co-Rapporteur on Armenia obviously has connections with Azerbaijan
At the sitting of the PACE Monitoring Committee June 24 Swedish MP Goran Lindblad was elected as the PACE Monitoring Committee new Co-Rapporteur on Armenia.
In terms of the objectivity of his candidacy, the Armenian delegation to the PACE has serious basis for doubt. The head of the Swedish delegation to the PACE Goran Lindblad managed to distinguish himself in February by bringing a project on Armenia into circulation which termed the participation of the Armenian army in March 1, 2008 events as “containing elements of coup d'état”.
Affirming the fears of the Armenian side on his impartiality and bias, Lindblad announced in his interview to “The Armenian Times” that he considers the detainees in the frames of March 1, 2008 events as political prisoners unless he is proven the opposite.
“This is the first time I have experienced a person who thinks has the right to make negative assessments as long as he has not been proven the opposite,” the head of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the chairman of the National Assembly Standing Committee on State-Legal Affairs David Harutyunyan said, commenting on Lindblad’s statement.
Illogical and odd behavior of the new Co-Rapporteur on Armenia becomes consecutive once we view the photo which accompanies this material. It features Goran Lindblad who receives a book “Armenian terror” from Azerbaijani agitator.
The fact that the PACE new Co-Rapporteur on Armenia is getting armed with materials of the Azerbaijani anti-Armenian agitation and propaganda, is already shocking, as in October, 2009 PACE Chairman Luis Maria de Puch addressed the Azerbaijani delegation demanding to stop spreading agitation materials with xenophobic content, and the given photo is the vivid proof of violating the demand by Azerbaijan. However, what alerts most is that Lindblad hurried to live up to Azerbaijan’s expectations in spreading non-objective information on Armenia.