Will PACE Pass Anti-Armenian Reports?

Today in Strasbourg opens a winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

On January 26, the second day of the session the parliament will be submitted two reports: by the British representative Robert Walter "The escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied regions of Azerbaijan" and the MP from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milica Markovic "Residents of border regions of Azerbaijan deliberately deprived of water."

The Armenian authorities are actively trying to prevent the adoption of these documents. For this purpose, Yerevan has mobilized all its capabilities, trying to convince parliamentarians from Armenia-friendly countries to block the adoption of these documents.

In particular, the speaker of the Armenian parliament Eduard Sharmazanov visited the Baltic countries, the Czech Republic and Greece with this mission.

With a similar mission other European countries were visited by the heads of several parliamentary committees, Hovhannes Sahakyan, Artak Zakaryan and Samvel Farmanyan.

Meanwhile, the Armenian Diaspora has initiated several actions and campaigns on the Internet and the collection of signatures against the anti-Armenian report to PACE, which contains wordings on the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenians, and violation of principles of international law in the Karabakh conflict.

Earlier attempts of the Armenian side to exclude the documents from the agenda of the PACE winter session failed.

It is noteworthy that two days before the session the OSCE Minsk Group (MG) called on PACE to refrain from making such reports.

"In the near future PACE may discuss a resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. We remind the Assembly, as well as other regional and international organizations, that the Minsk Group remains the only accepted format for the talks," the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group stated on January 22.

"We appreciate the interest of members of the Assembly, but the urge not to take steps that could hurt the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group or hamper the continuation of the negotiations," the document says.

This statement caused a backlash of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry, which accused the OSCE Minsk Group of an effort to monopolize the process of settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

In turn, Yervean threatened that it could leave the PACE, if the reports are adopted.

Note that the balance of power in the PACE on the matter is not that clear. Baku can count on the votes of the Turkish delegation, some of the deputies of Great Britain, the Balkan countries, Ukraine and Moldova, and in part, Georgia, Spain and France. -02D-