Armenian deputy speaker urges MPs to attend NATO seminar in Azerbaijan

Arminfo
6 Oct 04

YEREVAN

Despite Azerbaijan’s protests, Armenian MPs should attend the NATO
[Parliamentary Assembly’s] Rose-Roth seminar scheduled for 27-29
November in Baku, Vaan Ovanesyan, deputy speaker of the Armenian
parliament and a member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] bureau, told our correspondent today.

He said that by their failure to attend a session of the defence and
security commission of the CIS Parliamentary Assembly [in Yerevan],
Azerbaijani MPs made it clear to their Armenian colleagues that they
should not arrive in Baku either to participate in the Rose-Roth
seminar.

However, the deputy speaker said that the Armenian delegation should
attend the seminar despite Azerbaijan’s efforts to turn their visit
into a political show. “Armenian MPs’ refusal to visit Baku will be
perceived incorrectly by NATO and put Azerbaijan and Armenia on the
same scale in the eyes of the international community,” Ovanesyan
said.

[Passage omitted: NATO to keep an eye on the visit]