PACE ARMENIAN AND AZERI DELEGATIONS MAY MEET IN OCTOBER
Pan Armenian News
13.09.2005 04:31
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ 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.