PACE ARMENIAN AND AZERI DELEGATIONS MAY MEET IN OCTOBER

The sitting of the PACE Temporary Commission for settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh issue, formed in compliance with the PACE Resolution 14-16 was held in Paris yesterday. Deputy Chairman of the Armenian NA, PACE Armenian delegation head Tigran Torosyan detailed the session. In the course of the discussions Links British NGO Executive Director Dennis Sammut presented a historical excursus to the prehistory of the conflict and the current situation. “The report was interesting and balanced, it formed an unbiased notion of the conflict,” T. Torosyan noted. Later head of the OSCE Department of the Armenian MFA V. Nersisyan acquainted those present with Armenia’s stand over the conflict and the settlement prospects. Azeri Deputy FM Araz Azimov was supposed to present his country’s posture, however, he presented his own stand. These speeches were followed by a report of the OSCE MG Co-Chairs Bernard Fassier (France) and Yuri Merzlyakov (Russia), as well as American Co-Chair Steven Mann’s representative. The main idea put forward by the report was that it is impossible to solve a conflict based only on principles of territorial integrity and people’s right to self-determination. «It is necessary to apply both Helsinki principles – the territorial integrity along with the so-called «occupied territories» and the right to self-determination along with the issue of the status,» the report says. In his statement PACE Rapporteur on NK G. Lennmarker repeated the ideas of his famous report, emphasizing the idea of providing large autonomy to NK as part of Azerbaijan. EU Special Representative for South Caucasus Heikki Talvitie also presented his viewpoint. The speech of Russian delegation head Constantine Kasachev may be marked out of these statements. «Conflicts have different causes and the CE should not duplicate OSCE,» he noted. Turkish delegation leader tried to repeat Azerbaijan’s legend on 20% of occupied lands, however got confused and presented other figures. T. Torosyan noted in his statement that besides the conflict settlement it is necessary to solve several important issues. The first is clear division of mandates between the OSCE, CE and PACE. The OSCE MG should deal with conflict settlement issues, the CE with forming an atmosphere necessary to solve the conflict. He also noted that it is impossible to solve that conflict without application of the principle of people’s right to self-determination. In response to Azerbaijan’s statements PACE Armenian delegation member Shavarsh Kocharyan cited many facts evidencing militant propaganda and belligerent statements by the Azeri party, which obviously violates the PACE Resolution 14-16. Upon the completion of the discussions the Commission continued work and it was decided to hold the next meeting in December. However it is necessary for the Armenian and Azeri delegation to meet in the course of the October session to discuss further actions.