BAD FOREIGN POLICY PAVED WAY FOR DANGEROUS EUROPEAN REPORT ON KARABAKH
Asbarez
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
YEREVAN-The recent adoption by the European Parliament of a report
urging the return of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azeri rule could have been
prevented, the head of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s Supreme
Council in Armenia said on Tuesday.
Armen Rustamian criticized Armenia’s authorities for failing to
prevent the appointment of the resolution’s author, Romanian Member of
European Parliament Yevgeny Kirilov, to the post of EP Rapporteur to
the South Caucasus. He explained that it was the incongruous foreign
policy agenda of the Armenian government that leaves openings for
individuals like Kirilov to endanger the Karabakh peace process.
The report, titled “Report on the Need for an EU Strategy for the
South Caucasus,” urges the immediate withdrawal from the liberated
territories surrounding the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a move analysts
say will impede efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group and does not fall
within the purview of the European Parliament.
“I was aware of the report’s text and addressed a letter to the
chairman of the socialists’ group in the European Parliament,”
Rustamian said in a joint press conference with Parliament Vice-Speaker
Samvel Nikoyan. “We were able to remove some of the negative provisions
from the document, but the report still contains paragraphs that
distort the reality of the Karabakh conflict.”
Rustamian stressed that had the Armenian authorities clearly
articulated and comprehensively presented the matter of occupied
Armenian territories-Shahumian and Getashen-others would not have
the ability to derail the process in Azerbaijan’s advantage. He said
Armenia should immediately send a delegation to the EP to present
Yerevan’s official position on the report.
Nikoyan, for his part, said Armenia needs “to do its utmost” to
prevent discussion of the Karabakh conflict outside the format of
the Minsk Group, which has been exclusively mediating for a Karabakh
settlement since a ceasefire agreement in 1994 brought an end to
the fighting. “Representatives of these structures are basically
unaware of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, while Azerbaijan can play
on heartstrings of such audiences,” he stressed.
From: A. Papazian