During the first session of the PACE summer sitting the head of the Armenian delegation Davit Harutyunyan announced that the Armenian delegation refused to take part in the work of the sub-commission in charge of the issue of Karabakh and Azerbaijan’s delegation was moratorium.
The amazing fact is that the Armenian delegation made a decision to boycott the work of that sub-commission just minutes before the PACE session. However, they did not say what Armenia’s benefit would be in case of boycotting. Davit Harutyunyan’s expectation that he would show the place of the Azeris by calling them a moratorium did not come true because following the speech representative of the Azeri delegation Ganira Pashayeva had a harsher speech on the topic of “occupied territories” and refugees. “This is what we have been warning for many times; the ad hoc would be in charge of developing mutual trust. It is failed because MPs are taking part in their work, and as a rule in that case such process has a bad propaganda goal, but what we are offering is a smart approach,” said Davit Harutyunyan after Pashayeva’s speech.
Let’s remember that before the moratorium he petitioned the PACE to make efforts to develop trust between at least two delegations – the Armenia and Azeri ones. “The goal was to start negotiations between the two delegations in participation of no more than one mediator, who cannot be the head of the Assembly or the president of this ad hoc,” he said. During the previous session of the PACE Davit Harutyunyan recommended to announce moratorium for mutual accusations but without any result. “As an initial step I am announcing unilateral moratorium and I am calling on the Azeri delegation to join this moratorium,” announced Davit Harutyunyan during the PACE session. As for boycotting the work of the ad hoc in charge of the issue of Karabakh, Davit Harutyunyan said the following: “There is no sense to take part in it and listen to baseless allegations and direct propaganda. We hear that a lot here during the session.” During a phone conversation with us the PA representative to the Armenian delegation in PACE Naira Zohrabyan said that she had prepared a speech before that and was going to demand investigation of the Azeri school books but in consideration of the Armenian delegation’s joint decision, she did not come up with the speech. “As this was the decision, I will not make a speech about the Azeris,” said N. Zohrabyan. However she believes that announcement of moratorium on part of Armenia will not be effective as it will not keep Azerbaijan from anti-Armenian propaganda. “I was right because two minutes after Davit Harutyunyan’s speech the representative of the Azeri delegation made a senseless speech again about 20% “occupied” lands or refugees,” she said by condemning the style of speeches and announcements of the Azeri delegation. “They even accused the Armenian delegation for failing the dialogue, which, according to them, could take place in the sub-commission on Karabakh,” said Naira Zohrabyan.
By the way, before the PACE session would start the PACE president Mevlut Cavushoglu in answer to a question whether it was appropriate to launch the sub-commission on the issue of Karabakh before the meeting in Kazan and whether it would not be an obstacle for the negotiation process and it was him to initiate that said, “I was not the one to initiate the activity of the sub-commission, it is the PACE’s initiative from the times of president Russel Johns.” He also said he did not see any connection or risks in launching the mentioned sub-commission.
It is worth mentioning that today the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan will leave for Strasburg too. He will have a speech at the PACE on June 22. Two MPs from Armenia have been registered to ask questions to the president – Heritage faction representative Zaruhi Postanjyan and one more MP from the coalition. In fact, the coalition representative will have to ask questions not only against the Azeris but also Zaruhi Postanjyan. One hour will be provided for questions. As for the sequence of questions, this has been decided unilaterally by the PACE president Cavushoglu (according to the PACE rules).
Before the PACE session Mevlut Cavushoglu answered questions of Radio Liberty and in answer to a question what expectation he had from the meeting in Kazan he said that the relations between Armenia and Turkey mostly depended on the results of that meeting. “I want more than anybody else that the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan sign an agreement on the main principles of the conflict settlement in Kazan. I don’t think anybody will say no to that agreement. We will welcome that improvement,” said the PACE president. In answer to another question whether Turkey will ratify the protocols after the elections in Turkey the PACE president again referred to the meeting in Kazan and said, “As for the relations between Armenia and Turkey, it mostly depends on whether there will be agreement between the two leaders. Turkey has some preconditions, and the prime-minister has given comments about that. If these conditions are fulfilled, I think the protocols will be ratified in the parliament”. In answer to question whether it is fair to connect the Armenia-Turkey relations with the issue of Karabakh Cavushoglu said, “There has been verbal agreement on this between Armenia and Turkey. This agreement was confirmed by the foreign affairs ministers of other countries that were present there – the foreign ministers of France, Switzerland, Russia, as well as the US state secretary. It was confirmed that it was an agreement between the two parties, and also there were conditions that were not in the document. However, there are preconditions, and you know what those preconditions are”.