O’HARA ARMENIA, O’HARA AZERBAIJAN
Hakob Badalyan
Lragir
Sept 3 2007
Armenia
It seems the Council of Europe is trying its best not to let Azerbaijan
fulfill its obligation for a peace settlement of the Karabakh issue. At
least, what the delegation of the head of the PACE committee on culture
and education did, which was supposed to visit the South Caucasus to
evaluate the state of conservation of cultural monuments but failed to
come, had a considerable contribution to the escalation of the Armenian
and Azerbaijani conflict. The point is that by canceling the visit
O’Hara’s delegation caused the Armenian and Azerbaijani governments to
blame the other. Both the parliaments of Armenia and Azerbaijan made
statements containing mutual destructive accusations which explained
the cancellation of the visit of O’Hara’s delegation. Armenia thinks
Azerbaijan is to blame, Azerbaijan thinks Armenia is to blame.
Meanwhile, it is clear O’Hara or the Council of Europe with its
Parliamentary Assembly is to blame. It is not to blame for causing
mutual accusations by canceling the visit to the South Caucasus. It
is to blame for canceling the visit without explaining the reason
for cancellation. If there were an explanation, neither Armenia,
nor Azerbaijan would have the possibility and opportunity to accuse
each other. Indeed, it is not a reason to worry that these mutual
accusations may spark the second Armenian-Azerbaijani war. On the
other hand, it is evident that these accusations are not helpful to
the dialogue which Europe calls for with all its organizations.
In addition, this is not the first case when the actions and words
of Europe contradict. It involves not only politics and culture but
also sports. For instance, when the UEFA decided that it is better
to cancel the qualification match between Armenia and Azerbaijan,
it in fact set back the possibility of a dialogue between Armenia
and Azerbaijan. The European football officials think thereby they
prevented tensions. In reality, the European community revealed it is
not ready to help the sides find points in common. Europe retreated
right away and said: "If you are going to fight, you had better not
play." Meanwhile, in reality the European football officials ridded
of a bugbear and kept to the safe side – they kept the Armenians and
Azerbaijanis as far from each another as possible.
It is beyond doubt that O’Hara’s delegation or the leadership which
decided on the visit of the delegation were guided by the same
principle. In making the decision they might have thought when the
time of the visit comes, they will think how to cancel the visit. In
the meantime, to sustain the image of an isle of tolerance and peace,
Europe would make this decision indeed. And Robert Kocharyan should
not think that the Council of Europe is not Politburo. At least,
politburo sent its committees and tried to make an impression that
it attends to the current issues. These solutions cause vertigo in
Europe, and its strength is hardly enough to set up committees. And
whenever it is time to act, the Europeans have a fever and deep
depression. Perhaps this is the reason why the Americans have to
solve conflicts at the heart of Europe.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
