EUROPE ACTS INCORRECTLY REGARDING KARABAKH

KarabakhOpen
21-04-2008 13:22:29

One of the issues discussed at the session of the joint parliamentary
commission of Armenia and Karabakh on April 18 was European
integration. How is Karabakh perceived in the process of integration
of the South Caucasus with Europe and what is its role?

In answer to the question of Karabakh-Open.com, the speaker of
the Armenian National Assembly Tigran Torosyan said the European
organizations avoid the topic of the "unrecognized states" in their
policies. Although it is evident that the "unrecognized" states are
located in the territories, within the borders of the member countries
of the Council of Europe.

"Europe acts incorrectly. We often raise this issue with the European
organizations. After all the publics of those countries suffered enough
from the conflicts. Now they are undergoing discrimination from the
European organizations. Meanwhile, the paramount European value is
the protection of human rights, independent from which country they
live in, recognized or unrecognized," Tigran Torosyan said.

He underlined that cooperation between the European organizations and
Karabakh would be useful even to the settlement of the conflict. "For
Kosovo, for instance, democratic standards were set and a stipulation
was offered: first compliance then recognition. It is true that later
they had to recognize Kosovo first but I think that compliance with
democratic standards it highly important," said the speaker of the
Armenian parliament.

Karabakh is ready for contact with Europe. The Constitution
adopted in 2006 complies with international standards, said Tigran
Torosyan. Although he said legislation is not everything. "We need
to be more decisive in our actions," said the speaker.

In answer to the question of Karabakh-Open.com what decisive steps were
worked out during the session of the joint commission, Tigran Torosyan
said there were a lot of proposals but there are no decisions yet.

His Karabakhi counterpart Ashot Ghulyan said Karabakh needs to draw
the attention of Europe to the issue of human rights in Karabakh,
also through the delegations of Armenia to the European organizations.

Ashot Ghulyan noted the likelihood of Karabakh to join several
international and European conventions.