ARMENIAN MP SAYS NO PARALLELS POSSIBLE BETWEEN AZERI EXCLAVE AND KARABAKH

Arminfo
27 Mar 06

Yerevan, 27 March: Parallels cannot be drawn between Nagornyy
Karabakh and [Azerbaijan’s exclave of] Naxcivan as Council of Europe
Secretary-General Terry Davis has done, Tigran Torosyan, head of the
Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of
Europe and deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, said at today’s
press conference. Davis has said that the Council of Europe will send
a delegation to Nagornyy Karabakh and Naxcivan to find out about the
situation with the preservation of cultural monuments.

Nagornyy Karabakh and Naxcivan are completely different entities
in terms of their status, Torosyan said. “Finally, one should not
forget that a war finished in Nagornyy Karabakh only 12 years ago,
whereas there have never been military operations in Naxcivan. And
I intend to draw the attention of Terry Davis to this fact,” he said.

It is all a different matter if the Council of Europe delegation wants
to visit Nagornyy Karabakh to clarify some issues. In that case,
the visit should be agreed with the Nagornyy Karabakh authorities,
Torosyan said.

Following the latest act of vandalism in Naxcivan in December 2005,
Armenia appealed to various international bodies for condemnation of
the destruction of the Armenian cultural memorials in Azerbaijan. In
response to a letter by Armenian Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan, Terry Davis
said that a special delegation of the Council of Europe will visit
Nagornyy Karabakh in the summer 2006 to learn about the situation on
the ground.