ARF MEMBER ARGUES IN FAVOR BOYCOTTING PACE SESSION
ArmenPress
Nov 25 2004
YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 25, ARMENPRESS: A senior member of the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation/Dashnaktsutyun party, questioned today the
wisdom of placing a report on Nagorno Karabagh conflict on the agenda
of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe session, saying
that organization does not have a voting mechanism that would allow
it to enter the conflict regulation process as an unbiased body,
“as each of the conflicting sides would be looking to enlist the
support of delegates from 15-20 countries.”
Levon Mkrtchian of the ARF claimed that that simplified approach to
the conflict regulation places the entire responsibility of its future
fate on a European organization. Mkrtchian praised the wisdom of both
nations for “being reasonable to end the bloody war and replace it
with a ten-year long truce.”
Mkrtchian argued that the Armenian delegation should boycott the PACE
that is expected to discuss the report next year. “There is the OSCE
Minsk group who has been tackling the issue for years and I do not
see any reason behind taking the conflict to PACE,” Mkrtchian said,
adding, however, that these were his own personal viewpoints.
He went on to say that the report prepared by a former PACE rapporteur,
Terry Davis and taken up by his successor David Atkinson, has revealed
that both men do not master the problem on a professional level.