FRANCE-PACE-HEAD-KARABAKH

PACE ignores all arguments concerning the role and the mission of the PACE Ad Hoc Committee on Nagorno- Karabakh in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, Head of the Armenian delegation to PACE David Harutyunyan said while speaking in Strasbourg.

Harutyunyan said that this might be due to the PACE President's support for or even certain obligations to one of the delegations. He said that forced decisions cannot yield positive results. 

Harutyunyan said that the work of the committee was resumed with no regard to the objections of the Armenian delegation. 

"Our position is the same: the key obstacle to PACE's contribution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement is the lack of confidence between the Armenian and Azeri delegations," Harutyunyan said. 

He said that this situation can and must be improved. "We have proposed a whole number of ideas, particularly, a moratorium on mutual accusations. If the Azeri delegation supports our proposals, it will prove its commitment to normalize our complicated relations. Our proposals are still in force, and it is now for our Azeri colleagues to shake the hand we have stretched. We believe that this would be a symbol of political maturity and wisdom, and we are looking forward to cooperation with our Azeri colleagues," Harutyunyan said.

Related articles

Popular

Editor's choice
Interview
Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

Thursday Interview: Murad Muradov

Today, commonspace.eu starts a new regular weekly series. THURSDAY INTERVIEW, conducted by Lauri Nikulainen, will host  persons who are thinkers, opinion shapers, and implementors in their countries and spheres. We start the series with an interview with Murad Muradov, a leading person in Azerbaijan's think tank community. He is also the first co-chair of the Action Committee for a new Armenian-Azerbaijani Dialogue. Last September he made history by being the first Azerbaijani civil society activist to visit Armenia after the 44 day war, and the start of the peace process. Speaking about this visit Murad Muradov said: "My experience was largely positive. My negative expectations luckily didn’t play out. The discussions were respectful, the panel format bringing together experts from Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey was particularly valuable during the NATO Rose-Roth Seminar in Yerevan, and media coverage, while varied in tone, remained largely constructive. Some media outlets though attempted to represent me as more of a government mouthpiece than an independent expert, which was totally misleading.  Overall, I see these initiatives as important steps in rebuilding trust and normalising professional engagement. The fact that soon a larger Azerbaijani civil society visits to Armenia followed, reinforces the sense that this process is moving in the right direction." (click the image to read the interview in full)