Armenia wants to disrupt Council of Europe report on breakaway region – TV

ANS TV, Baku
16 Jan 05

[Presenter] Azerbaijan and Armenia will again stand face to face on 25
January at the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the
Council of Europe [PACE] in Strasbourg. It is worth saying that the
most successful moments of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh diplomacy are related
to the work done at this council. Baku has achieved some significant
progress to boast of here which, at first sight, can be seen as devoid
of important mechanisms to influence the resolution of the problem
[Nagornyy Karabakh conflict]. Multifaceted ongoing initiatives of the
Armenians and their efforts to use everyone and everything prove that
Yerevan will try at least not to lose in Strasbourg.

[Passage omitted: background information given as reference on screen]

[Correspondent, over video of CE building in Strasbourg, CE sessions]
This time the front-line is Strasbourg and the opposing forces are
parliamentarians. Our MPs together with their counterparts from
occupying Armenia will join the hearings on the Nagornyy Karabakh
issue at the winter session of the PACE in this French city on 25
January. The debates will certainly be very strenuous. The report by
the PACE rapporteur on Nagornyy Karabakh, David Atkinson, which will
be presented for hearings, and the draft resolution that will be
passed have caused hot debates in the media of the two countries for
nearly two months. There are many aspects that are in Azerbaijan’s
interests in the text of the report. From this viewpoint, the
Armenians are trying to disrupt its discussion by mobilizing all their
forces. The Armenians had some insignificant changes made to the
report when it was discussed at the political committee of the PACE in
November. The Azerbaijani side tentatively predicts what points
Armenia will heed at the discussions on 25 January.

[Gultakin Haciyeva, member of Azerbaijani delegation to PACE,
captioned, shown speaking to ANS] The first point is that they are
planning to make changes to the document, that Azerbaijani territories
were occupied not by Armenia’s armed formations, but by local Armenian
military formations [in Nagornyy Karabakh]. The main argument the
Armenians are putting forward is that this wording was used in the
resolutions issued by the UN Security Council.

[Correspondent] Haciyeva said the Azerbaijani delegation is going to
the session with specific facts and documents testifying to Armenia’s
aggression against Azerbaijan. She said Azerbaijan has a number of
proposals to the draft resolution, as well, but it won’t disclose them
yet in order not to give Armenia ammunition.

Armenia is also seriously bracing itself for the
discussions. Unofficial information says that the foreign minister of
the occupying country, Vardan Oskanyan, has made several visits to
London since November to influence English parliamentarians on this
issue. Even, the faithful defender of Armenia’s interests, the former
Russian co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, Vladimir Kazimirov, tried
to correct rapporteur Atkinson’s, in inverted commas,” mistakes” last
month.

Although there are many objective points in the draft resolution, it
cannot be considered to be [the basis of] a claim. The document says
that Azerbaijan and Armenia assumed obligations to resolve the
conflict only by peaceful means when they entered the Council of
Europe in January 2001. Taking into consideration the fact that the
negotiations have not produced any results so far, we can say that
this provision restricts Azerbaijan’s right to liberate its occupied
lands by force if the peace talks prove to be sterile. At the same
time, the resolution suggests that the parties go to the international
court if the resolution of the conflict is not possible. But it is
admissible to Azerbaijan. As we know, courts usually consider
disputed issues, while Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity cannot be a
subject of dispute, court or referendum since it was recognized by the
UN and other influential entities. Anyhow, we do not have any good
reason to celebrate yet. Everything will depend on the 25 January test
of our MPs. In other words, he who laughs last has the best laugh.

Azada Balayeva for ANS