ARFD CONDEMNS STATEMENT BY PACE RAPPORTEUR ON KARABAKH

YEREVAN, JANUARY 28. ARMINFO. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation
Dashnaktsoutyun party considers inadmissible the statement by PACE
rapporteur on Karabakh David Atkinson that the principle of a nation’s
self-determination right is not applicable to the Karabakh people,
says ARFD member, parliamentary vice speaker Vahan Hovhannissyan.

Especially inadmissible is the statement that “if Azerbaijan agrees to
Karabakh’s independence PACE will not object.” This is in fact a call
on Azerbaijan to toughen its position in the Karabakh
issue. Hovhannissyan says that ARFD warned that Atkinson’s report
might be biased as he “reeks of oil” and that Armenia should do its
best to invalidate this report. “One should not underestimate the
factor of Azeri oil and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in the Karabakh
issue,” says Hovhannissyan noting that his statements do not refer to
the British government but its cdertain officials.

Commenting on the acknowledgement of Azerbaijan’s territorial
integrity by some states Hovhanissyan says that this principle is more
clearly formulated than that of a nation’s self-determination and
that’s why the international community prefers the former to the
latter. That’s exactly why Armenia should not react to such statements
so acutely. “We should stay immune to such statements. Armenia too
recognizes Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity but without Karabakh who
has never been part of independent Azerbaijan,” says Hovhannissyan.