MP says Council of Europe’s Karabakh resolution advantageous to Armenia
Public Television of Armenia, Yerevan
25 Jan 05
[Presenter] The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE]
today called for more efforts to settle peacefully the Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict. A resolution adopted in this regard today called on
Yerevan and Baku to refrain from using military force against each
other.
[Correspondent Artur Grigoryan reports outside PACE building in
Strasbourg] Armenia and Azerbaijan were admitted to the Council of
Europe on 25 January 2001, having undertaken a commitment to settle
the conflict peacefully.
There could also be a military solution, when Azerbaijan consolidates
its potential at the expense of its oil. In this case, of course,
Azerbaijan will cease to be a member of the Council of Europe,
[British MP] David Atkinson said.
One out of three Armenian proposals was adopted, according to which
Armenia should bring its influence to bear on Nagornyy Karabakh to
achieve a peaceful settlement. It means that Karabakh is given a
chance to be a party to the negotiations. David Atkinson stressed this
suggesting that Azerbaijan hold consultations with Armenia and
Karabakh without any preconditions.
[Armen Rustamyan, member of the Armenian delegation in Strasbourg,
captioned] Although some changes have been made to the document, I am
concerned. First, will the Minsk process [peace talks mediated by the
OSCE Minsk Group] benefit form all these? I think that all the
amendments made to the resolution did not take into consideration 12
years of the Minsk process experience.
[Tigran Torosyan, deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament and head
of the Armenian delegation] The resolution adopted today has two
important advantages for Armenia. First, this is the first document
which says that any territory can be separated from any country
democratically and based on the support of the people living on that
territory. It is obvious that this is the problem of Nagornyy Karabakh
and we shall develop this idea in the future in order to achieve a
final resolution for Karabakh.
The second aspect is the most important one connected with future
efforts. The session pointed out that starting from today Armenians
and Azerbaijanis should establish contacts, build an atmosphere of
confidence and create cooperation possibilities. I would like to
remind you that this is Armenia’s positions repeated over years. The
Parliamentary Assembly confirmed Armenia’s position, and I am sure
that if in a year they again return to this resolution Azerbaijan will
face two problems. It will either continue to stick to its position
that cooperation is possible only after the conflict settlement or
have to answer to the assembly over its failure to implement this
resolution.
[Correspondent] It is noteworthy that delegations from nine countries
joined the Armenian side’s proposal, and only Turkey supported
Azerbaijan’s proposals.