Azg, Yerevan, in Armenian
18 Nov 04

Armenia displeased with new Council of Europe rapporteur’s Karabakh
report

Excerpt from Tatul Akopyan’s report by Armenian newspaper Azg on 18
November headlined “Atkinson submits a report prepared by Davis” and
subheaded “Azerbaijan is pleased with the new rapporteur on Karabakh,
but Armenia is not”

Yesterday’s session of the political commission of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe PACE in Paris had to discuss David
Atkinson’s report on the Karabakh issue along with other reports.

In his interview with the Baku newspaper Ekho, a member of the
Azerbaijani delegation at PACE, Aydin Mirzazade, said that if the
report is based on that of the former Karabakh rapporteur Terry
Davis, who is now secretary-general of the Council of Europe, it will
be acceptable to Azerbaijan and unbiased.

Two days ago 16 November , Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
told journalists in the parliament that Atkinson had almost copied
Davis’s report. “There is a number of points in the document, which I
think should be changed, as they do not express reality correctly. It
would be better to change them for the report to become more
balanced,” Vardan Oskanyan said.

At the press conference held earlier on 22 September, Oskanyan
described Terry Davis’s report on Karabakh as unacceptable and
causing anxiety. “Today this report has no legal status, it is still
a subject of discussion, the rapporteur has changed, a
newly-appointed one should prepare his report, he may ground on
Davis’s report or may ignore it.” Oskanyan described the statements
made up till now by Karabakh rapporteur Atkinson as not being
pro-Armenian.

Undoubtedly, Atkinson was forced to make only some changes to the
report prepared by Davis, as he could not prepare a new one in two
months. In that period of time, he did not visit the region,
including Karabakh.

Passage omitted: Atkinson once visited Karabakh in 1993; On the
whole, the view existing in Armenia that the British MP is
pro-Azerbaijani is not true

Along with Vardan Oskanyan, the deputy chairman of the National
Assembly, Vaan Ovanesyan, also publicly expressed a negative reaction
to Atkinson. And this happened when Atkinson’s report was not ready
yet. Atkinson is not obliged to read the Armenian press, but it is
difficult to rule out that he is not aware of the negative view that
developed around his name in Armenia. Armenia is displeased with
Atkinson’s appointment instead of making contacts with him.

Earlier, the deputy chairman of the National Assembly said that
Davis’s report on Karabakh had no legal force and had only a
consultative nature.

Undoubtedly, Atkinson’s report will also have no real force, but it
will be of political and propaganda significance. Especially as
Atkinson’s report, which is a copy of Davis’s report, contains a
number of inadmissible words like “ethnic cleansing”, “part of
Azerbaijani land is occupied, and separatists control Karabakh” and
so on.