PACE SUBCOMMITTEE ON GARABAGH TO RETAIN STATUS

Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 16 2006

Baku, March 15, AssA-Irada
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe discussed the
future status of the temporary subcommittee on the Armenia-Azerbaijan
Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict at a meeting of PACE in Paris on
Wednesday. The discussions followed presentation of a report by the
subcommittee chairman Lord Russel Johnston, Armenian media reported.

The head of the Armenian delegation at the Assembly, vice-speaker
Tigran Torosian said the organization will mostly likely continue to
operate under the PACE bureau.

Torosian stated that Russel Johnston supported keeping the
subcommittee’s current status in force.

“He underlined that the key goal of the entity will be to prepare
the two nations for a resolution of the conflict. It will take all
the needed steps to put an end to calls for military action and
hatred,” the Armenian MP maintained, in an apparent reference to
Azeri officials’ warnings that the country may resort to military
action to solve over a decade-long dispute.

Torosian added that the views expressed by the Azeri and Armenian
delegations at PACE on the issue “coincided”.