EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT MEMBERS AWAITING AZERI PERMISSION TO VISIT NAKHICHEVAN

Armenpress
Apr 19 2006

YEREVAN, APRIL 19, ARMENPRESS: Members of Armenia-EU Parliamentary
Cooperation Commission who are mandated by the president of the
European Parliament to travel to Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan to
investigate Armenian reports that an old Armenian cemetery there was
destroyed said today in Yerevan they did not receive the permission
of Azeri authorities. They said they would go to Nakhichevan as soon
as the permission were given.

The decision to dispatch a fact-finding mission to the enclave
had been made by the European Parliament on April 6 and members
of the Armenia-EU Commission were assigned to assume the mission
after ending the Commission’s eighth meeting in Yerevan today. The
Commission’s cochairman Marie-Ann Isler Begin, who is also cochairman
of a similar EU-Azerbaijan Commission, said today after learning about
the destruction of the cemetery the European Parliament asked UNESCO
for information, but it had none.

“Now we are working with Armenia, Azerbaijan and UNESCO to specify
what happened in reality,’ she said, adding also that judging by the
evidence presented by the Armenian side the cemetery had been subject
to previous acts of vandalism as well.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on February 16 condemning
the act of vandalism in the cemetery and called on Azeri authorities
‘ to allow a European Parliament mission to trip to the region to
investigate reports on destruction of old Armenian monuments in
Azerbaijani territory.”