AZERI PARTY HAMPERS PACE MISSION’S VISIT TO THE REGION

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
Oct 6 2006

October 5 the sitting of the Subcommittee on cultural heritage was
held within the frames of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
of Europe fall session. In the course of the sitting the time of
the PACE fact-finding group’s dispatch to the South Caucasus region
was discussed.

To remind, a decision on the organization of the PACE fact-finding
group’s visit to the region to estimate the cultural and historical
monuments’ condition was rendered earlier. Armenia has repeatedly
engaged the European structures’ attention to the barbarian
destruction of the Armenian monuments in Nakhijevan and other
territories controlled by Azerbaijan.

According to the information DE FACTO got at the RA NA Press Service,
the Azeri delegation’s representatives were absent from the sitting,
which caused the indignation of the Commission’s members. A member
of the Armenian delegation in PACE, RA NA deputy Stepan Demirchyan
noted Armenia was ready to receive the PACE mission. Stepan Demirchyan
expressed his indignation on the behavior of the Azeri party hampering
the mission’s organization.

The Subcommittee has decided to give a month to Azerbaijan, and,
unless the issue is set in motion, the Azeri party will be sent a
letter with the appropriate assessment of such behavior.