Azeri paper comments on possible Karabakh presence at Bulgarian session

Ekho, Baku
8 Jul 04

MPs and experts from Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia recently took
part in a session of the South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative in
Bulgaria. There were reports afterwards that Nagornyy Karabakh had
been represented at the session by David Babayan, unbeknown to members
of the delegation from Azerbaijan. An Azerbaijani newspaper article
said that such participation “is effectively a challenge to Baku”. The
paper spoke to two people who had attended the forum. One said that
it could not be ruled out that Babayan had been there but they had not
been introduced .He urged clarification. The other said that if true
then a protest would be filed. The following is the text of
R. Orucov’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekho on 8 July headlined
“Armenian separatist was sitting at same table with Azeri deputies”
and subheaded “Parliamentarians say that they were unaware of this and
promise to hold the organizer of session of South Caucasus
Parliamentary Initiative accountable”

As Ekho has already reported, the second plenary session of the South
Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative SCPI , which was founded a few years
ago through the efforts of the British nongovernmental organization
LINKS, was held on 1-4 July in Sofia. MPs and experts from Azerbaijan,
Georgia and Armenia took part in the session.

Yesterday’s 7 July report by the Armenian news agency ARKA that the
separatist regime of Nagornyy Karabakh had been represented at the
session in the Bulgarian capital by a staffer of the “apparatus of the
president of the Republic of Nagornyy Karabakh” David Babayan (“Trend”
as published ) has become a sensation. He said that it was mainly the
issues of expansion in Europe, relations in this context among the
states of the South Caucasus and the settlement of the conflicts in
the region that were discussed. He also said that “as always, the
Azeri delegation declared the principle of resolving the issue of the
status of Nagornyy Karabakh only after the liberation of all
territories and return of the refugees.

It has to be noted that participation in such a representative forum
by a functionary from the separatist regime of Nagornyy Karabakh is
effectively a challenge to Baku. The point is that the Azeri
participants in the forum – deputies of the Milli Maclis – said in
their comments to the press that only representatives of the
legislative bodies of the three South Caucasus countries convened in
Sofia.

It emerged that the members of the Azeri delegation to the SCPI did
not even have a clue that the “staffer of the apparatus of the
president of the Republic of Nagornyy Karabakh” was sitting at the
same “round table” with them.

For example, Sahlar Asqarov, a Milli Maclis deputy from the New
Azerbaijan Party and a member of the delegation, told Ekho that “it
was not mentioned in any speech during the session that a
representative of the Republic of Nagornyy Karabakh is present here.”
“LINKS Executive Director Dennis Sammut said nothing about this
either,” Sahlar Asqarov said. The deputy noted that the published
report has to be studied, and if it is confirmed, all appropriate
measures should be taken. “I will inform the head of our delegation to
the SCPI, Siayvus Novruzov. We should clarify all this. The
possibility cannot be ruled out that this Babayan was there indeed but
he was not introduced to us. Perhaps the head of LINKS knew about it
but did not tell us.”

Another member of the Azeri delegation, deputy from the People’s Front
of Azerbaijan Party Alimammad Nuriyev, was also not informed. “We were
told that delegates and experts from Armenia are taking part in the
session,” the parliamentarian noted. This deputy also thinks that this
issue has to be studied thoroughly. “And first and foremost we should
demand an answer from LINKS because they organized this “round
table”. If everything is confirmed, we will of course file a protest
and most probably we will refuse to take part in subsequent sessions
of the SCPI. This discredits the very idea of the SCPI, which is
inadmissible,” the deputy emphasized.

According to him, it was agreed when the SCPI was created that it
would consist of parliamentarians and experts only from the three
Caucasus states, Nuriyev noted. “If we found out that a representative
of Gukasyan was present at the session, then we would expel him or
leave the session ourselves,” Nuriyev said. In his opinion, if the
participation of Babayan in the session is confirmed, “LINKS will have
to account for this.”

Nuriyev recalled that, at the previous session of the SCPI in December
2003 in Edinburgh, the Georgian delegation voiced the initiative that
it would be good to invite all sides who deem themselves parties to
the conflicts in the Caucasus. “Back then we strongly objected to
this,” the parliamentarian said.