National Secretary of TRACECA from Azerbaijan Akif Mustafaev used its right of vote and voted against the candidature of Armenia on the post of the General Secretary of the Permanent Secretariat of intergovernmental commission. However, the demarche of the representative of Azerbaijan was directed not against the person of the candidate but against his nationality. And this means that the official Baku wanted to fail the works of the intergovernmental commission. It should be mentioned that representative of Turkey refrained from voting. But one vote against might be enough to fail the conference as the issues are being decided on the basis pf consensus in TRACECA.
However, the Armenian party sacrificed its principle for finding a solution for the situation of crisis. Armenia presented the candidature for the general secretary of the intergovernmental commission a representative of another country – Bulgaria. Lyudmila Trenkova took the position and condemning the provocation of the Azeri delegation, said that in the period of Bulgarian presidency Sofia would present the candidature of Armenia.
It is important to mention the speech of the head of the delegation of European Commission Per Briks Knudsen. He stressed that TRACECA is an economic project and political initiatives are inadmissible here. He hinted that the European Commission had the right to stop financing of the countries which tried to use their participation in TRACECA in order to solve political problems. As far as Armenia is concerned, all the participants of the forum underlined the fairness of its position. The TRASECA partners are grateful to the Armenian government for its courageous undertaking that allowed to resolve the crisis. At the same time they will understand if Armenia during the next session of intergovernmental commission blocks the election of the Azeri candidate for the post of Secretary General. In the capital cities of member-countries of the project they understand that after the events taken place at the Yerevan conference Armenia has the moral rights to do the same to Azerbaijan. Will Azerbaijan win or loose in that case? The answer will be given when at the session of the General Council of the World Trade Organization the issue of Azerbaijan’s membership will rise. In the WTO, as in TRACECA, the issues are being solved on the basis of consensus and one against vote will be enough to make the Azeri understand that they will be retaliated for everything they do.
