AZERBAIJANI MEDIA QUERY FRENCH RESPONSE IN WAR REMARKS ROW

News.az
March 16 2010
Azerbaijan

A commentator has wondered why French mediator Bernard Fassier
did not protest more strongly at distortions of his remarks on the
Armenian army.

Madat Chemenli reviewed the incident in his piece for 1news.az.

The co-chairman of the OSCE Minsk Group, mediating a settlement to
the Karabakh conflict, told a NATO seminar in Yerevan on Friday that,
‘Azerbaijan’s victory in the event of renewed war is impossible,
because I know about the bravery of Armenian and Karabakh warriors,’
according to the Armenian media.

Azerbaijani political scientist Ilgar Mammadov confirmed to 1news.az
that he had heard these words used by the official interpreter in
English during the seminar.

Bernard Fassier telephoned the Azerbaijani foreign minister yesterday
to say his statement had been completely distorted. He said that as
the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group he could never evaluate any army
or soldiers and would never make such a mistake as a mediator. He said
that the quality of translation was poor both in Russian and English.

1news.az tried to to contact Bernard Fassier and the French Foreign
Ministry for official comment. They were asked to put their questions
in writing via e-mail, which they did, but they have yet to receive
a response.

‘So, what do we have?’ asked Madat Chemenli.

The seminar was organized by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, along
with the National Assembly of Armenia. It was the second seminar of
its kind held in Armenia (the first was in 2005), which means that
Armenia had experience of holding the event, he said.

‘And now it turns out that during an event that involved dozens
of senior officials from different countries and organizations, an
OFFICIAL interpreter RUDELY distorted the words of the co-chair of
the organization that is MEDIATING the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict,’
Chemenli wrote.

‘In addition, the distortion (and possibly the attribution) of words
said by the co-chair seemed to be a sensitive issue that could
almost lead to an international scandal. This means that Armenia
is officially organizing provocation on an international scale,
since the translator was provided by the organizer of the event –
the National Assembly of Armenia.

‘Meanwhile, Armenia dares to "cross" even the OSCE Minsk Group
co-chair, attributing to him words that he did not say.’ The
commentator went on to say that ‘Armenian provocations have long ceased
to surprise Azerbaijan, but Bernard Fassier’s tolerance is astonishing.

‘The reason why neither Fassier nor the Foreign Ministry of France
made an official protest, but contented themselves with a telephone
comment is still unclear to us.

‘We think it would have been more appropriate to send an official
protest to the organizers of the event, voicing indignation at such
provocations by the Armenian side in order to avert a repetition of
such incidents.

‘There are no doubts that the attribution of words to the co-chair is
not the initiative of the translator. This was a provocation planned
at the highest level in Armenia.

‘Meanwhile, Bernard Fassier’s silence about the provocateur is at
the least awkward and just arouses unnecessary suspicions.’ 1news.az