GANIRA PASHAYEVA: "PACE SHOULD NOT APPLY DOUBLE STANDARDS TOWARDS ARMENIA AND IGNORE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THIS COUNTRY"
Today
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April 14 2008
Azerbaijan
Day.Az interview with Ganira Pashayeva, member of the Azerbaijani
delegation in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
-The spring session of PACE will start soon. Which issue will be a
priority for the Azerbaijani delegation?
-Elections were held in Russia, Serbia and Armenia. Naturally, the
discussions will be held in connection with these elections. In
particular, the discussed will be the post-election situation in
Armenia and we will certainly take part in these discussions and
express our opinion.
Official structures of Armenia arranged elections in the occupied
lands of Azerbaijan, which do not comply to the international norms.
Moreover, arrangement of elections in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan
has a negative impact on the conflict settlement through negotiation
and promotes tenseness in the region.
Armenia has previously held elections in the occupied lands
of Azerbaijan and international organizations spoke about the
inadmissibility of such a step. However, Armenians, ignoring the
reaction of the world society, held elections of the President of
Armenia in the occupied lands. We will raise this issue both in
the framework of the assembly and before the Ministers Committee of
the Council of Europe. We want them to react to Armenia’s negative
behavior.
-Will the issues of elections of President in Armenia, which also
influenced Azerbaijan, be discussed? For example, intensive clashes
on the front, which occurred on March 4.
-Of course, mostly, the elections in Armenia are their domestic
affair. We will just focus on the moments, which did not bypass
Azerbaijan, resulting from this situation in Armenia, including,
the intensive violation of ceasefire in the region. After creating
tenseness in Armenia, the powers of this country decided to distract
attention of the world society from their domestic problems and started
provocations on the front line, instead of undertaking civilian steps
to improve the situation.
These were steps, which may create a stir any time. Moreover, we will
stress basic principles of the Council of Europe on observing human
rights and other issues, resulting from it. In this context it should
be noted that double standards should not be applied towards Armenia
and violations of human rights should be taken into account.
Otherwise, this will create distrust to this organization.
-Serzh Sarkissyan has made touch declarations immediately after
inauguration. The parliamentary hearings were arranged on Karabakh.
How should we respond?
-Serzh Sarkissyan’s declarations, made both during the pre-election
campaign and during the inauguration speech, should create concern.
In fact, he is a member of the old team and shows that he will continue
the actions of this team.
It is necessary to hold similar discussions in the Azerbaijani
parliament. Apart from discussing Armenia, we should criticize
position of some Russian parliamentarians, including K.Zarulin,
who said that Armenia should appeal to Russia for recognition of
independence of Nagorno Karabakh. This is Russia’s open support for
separatist republics.
-Armenia voiced official announcements of the necessity to settle
the occupied lands, so that Azerbaijan would make concessions. Why
haven’t there been a reaction to such announcements?
-PACE has adopted the due document, which criticized the
announcements. Moreover, a mission has been arranged including
representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing states. The
final document also stressed inadmissibility of the settlement of
the occupied lands. In this sense, Armenia’s failure to comply with
the resolution and decisions of the Council of Europe, thus ignoring
international law, will be discussed in PACE.