ARMENIAN DELEGATION VOTES FOR COMPROMISE OPTION RATHER THAN FOR AZERBAIJAN’S PROPOSALS AT BSEC PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY SUMMIT

Noyan Tapan

Ju ne 17, 2008

YEREVAN, JUNE 17, NOYAN TAPAN. The information that the Armenian
delegation voted for the Azerbaijani proposals at the recent 31st
summit of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC)
Parliamentary Assembly in Athens does not correspond to reality, the
head of the Armenian parliamentary delegation in the BSEC PA, chairman
of the RA National Assembly Standing Committee on Financial, Credit and
Budgetary Issues Gagik Minasian told reporters on June 17. According to
him, this information was published in the interview of the Azerbaijani
delegation’s head Asef Hajiev with Regnum news agency.

G. Minasian said that as early as at the Yerevan meeting of the BSEC
PA Commission on Political and Legal Issues, Azerbaijan’s delegation
had proposed making amendments to the text of the Report "The Role
of the Parliaments of the BSEC Member States in the Fight against
International Terrorism" to be discussed at the summit, while the
Armenian side had considered these amendments as unacceptable. The
Azerbaijani side had proposed to indicate that the manifestations
of extremism and separatism in ethnic relations create a fertile
ground for regional and off-regional terrorism and that along with
the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the CIS, the
BSEC Parliamentary Assembly also attaches importance to the approaches
of the GUAM Parliamentary Assembly to the problem of terrorism. It
was said in the amendments proposed that extremism and separatism
must be condemned based on the recently adopted resolution of the UN
Security Council.

G. Minasian informed those present that during the summit the
Azerbaijani delegation once again presented the proposals which were
rejected at the above mentioned meeting in Yerevan. However, as a
result of discussions, these proposals were modified into a compromise
option, and both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides voted for it.