ARMENIAN DEPUTY SPEAKER SAYS COUNCIL OF EUROPE’S KARABAKH REPORT “REEKS OF
OIL”
Mediamax news agency
28 Jan 05
YEREVAN
Armenian Deputy Speaker Vaan Ovanesyan is concerned at the Azerbaijani
authorities’ attempt to take the format of the Karabakh problem
settlement outside the OSCE Minsk Group framework and into the
parliamentary structures of the Council of Europe, NATO and other
organizations, where the superficial study of the problem is being
carried out.
Ovanesyan said this at a meeting with journalists at the National
Press Club in Yerevan today.
In this way official Baku avoids settling the conflict, and the Minsk
Group co-chairmen are really involved in solving it, taking into
consideration the opinions of all the parties to the conflict, he
said. The deputy speaker expressed an opinion that discussions of this
issue at experts’ level in any case lead to proposals which are more
advantageous to the Armenian side than to the Azerbaijani one. He
recalled that after the change of the authorities in Armenia in 1998
all the proposals of the OSCE Minsk Group were rejected by Azerbaijan.
Ovanesyan noted that reports of international structures are
non-binding since the mandate to settle the Karabakh problem belongs
to the Minsk Group. At the same time, the deputy speaker expressed
concern at the fact that PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe) rapporteur David Atkinson in his speech devalued the
mediators’ work holding them responsible for the difficulties in the
settlement process. Ovanesyan also condemned the report for the
failure to mention the prime cause of the conflict.
“The document reeks of oil,” he said, noting that the report took into
account the interests of oil consortiums engaged in the construction
of the Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress