H. Naghdalyan: Robert Walter’s anti-Armenian report rejected by PACE was dangerous in political sense
The report prepared by former British MP in the PACE Rovert Walter was a very dangerous document in a political sense, vice speaker of the Armenian parliament, the head of the Armenian delegation in PACE Hermine Naghdalyan told reporters in the National Assembly of Armenia today when summarizing the results of the PACE’s winter session.
As was reported, during its winter session the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on January 26 voted on two reports: “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water” – a scandalous report prepared by Milica Markovic, MP from Bosnia and Herzegovina - was adopted by 98 votes to 71, with 40 abstentions. Another controversial report that drew a wide response - “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” prepared by British MP Robert Walter who holds Turkish citizenship was rejected in a 66-77 vote.
According to Ms. Naghdalyan, from the very beginning both Walter and Markovic had a clear position of writing their reports without visiting Nagorno Karabakh.
“Azerbaijan lost all hope of achieving pro-Azerbaijani formulations in the international arena, and in this situation Baku will try to take steps that would change the state of affairs. Thus, the first platform is PACE where they have an initial advantage and an army of like-minded people,” Naghdalayan said.
In her words, Walter’s report aimed to give a complex solution to the Karabakh problem that would become a format parallel to the OSCE Minsk Group or would reject this format of settlement.
“Walter’s report was very dangerous and represented an attempt of a holistic and complex solution to the Karabakh problem within the frame of vocabulary favorable for Azerbaijan,” the Armenian delegation’s head said.
Commenting on Milica Markovic’s report on Sarsang reservoir, H. Naghdalyan said that real content of the report was political, with no social issues raised in it.
H. Naghdalayn noted that during all speeches and discussions the Armenian delegation in PACE stressed that there is only one format – the OSCE Minsk Group for resolving the Karabakh conflict.
“Our policy is to propose, assist and ensure that PACE enters the negotiations of MPs of Artsakh (editor: Nagorno Karabakh Republic)”, Hermine Naghdalyan said.