Armenian ex-minister critical of Council of Europe’s Karabakh resolution

Arminfo
26 Jan 05

YEREVAN

The resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
[PACE] on Nagornyy Karabakh is distinguished by its special
subjectivity, and drawing up such documents is unbecoming of
authoritative international organizations such as PACE, the head of
the faction of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation – Dashnaktsutyun
[ARFD] and Armenian ex-foreign minister, Levon Lazarian, said in an
interview with our Arminfo correspondent while commenting on the PACE
resolution on Nagornyy Karabakh adopted yesterday.

He stressed that the PACE resolution contains provisions that were not
earlier included in other international documents. The subjectivity of
the document is proved by the fact that the opinion of Nagornyy
Karabakh representatives was not taken into account when this document
was drawn up and discussed, the MP said. Meanwhile, he pointed out,
when the Chechen and Abkhaz issues were discussed, the opinion of
representatives of these peoples was heard by PACE. “Although such
documents cannot have a real impact on the process of settling the
Karabakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group, there
is a danger that they can form the wrong public opinion, which will
reflect on the activities of the OSCE Minsk Group in the end. The OSCE
Minsk Group is composed of members of international organizations,”
Levon Lazarian said.

Commenting on the current situation, I can say that thanks to
Azerbaijan’s efforts to transfer the Karabakh issue from the format of
the OSCE Minsk Group to the format of international organizations, a
new stage has started in the process of settling the Karabakh
conflict, he stressed.

Having realized that propaganda is of great importance in the Karabakh
issue, Azerbaijan changed its strategy, raising this issue with
international organizations. “We have to say that it will be
impossible to avoid discussing the Karabakh issue in international
organizations. In this connection, Armenia should place emphasis on
increasing the level of parliamentary diplomacy and speeding up
lobbying activities,” the MP stated.