DOV LYNCH NEVER DREW PARALLELS BETWEEN KOSOVO AND KARABAKH

PanARMENIAN.Net
10.03.2008 18:46 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Dov Lynch, the senior adviser to the OSCE’s Secretary
General, said today he had been misquoted by Azerbaijani media after
making a speech in a personal capacity a NATO Parliamentary Assembly
meeting in Baku.

"In his speech yesterday (6 March) on developments in the South
Caucasus, Lynch had said that "wider developments may impact on
regional security". He referred to "interpretations of the so-called
Kosovo ‘precedent’ as a case in point, despite declarations that the
Kosovo case is sue generic". Lynch said in the speech that "certainly,
developments in the Western Balkans may mean that there is simply
less time and attention given to the South Caucasus by external
actors". Statements reported by several Azerbaijani news agencies and
newspapers misrepresented the comments by Lynch, mistakenly saying
he had drawn a parallel between Kosovo and the Nagorno Karabakh
conflicts," says a statement PanARMENIAN.Net received from the office
of the OSCE’s Secretary General.

"It is disappointing my remarks were misrepresented," Lynch said.

On March 6, the Azeri Press Agency said that addressing a Rose Roth
seminar in Baku, Dov Lynch stated that "despite distinctions, Kosovo
can set precedent for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict."