If the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) were to start a process in parallel with the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group, this will only deteriorate the situation.
German MP Doris Barnett, who is also a member of the PACE Socialist Group, on Tuesday noted the aforementioned at the ongoing PACE Winter Session in Strasbourg, France.
She urged the PACE deputies not to vote in favor of the two anti-Armenian reports.
Barnett stressed that these reports should be returned to their respective PACE committees and reviewed yet again, stated that the protracted conflict between the Armenian and the Azerbaijani parties has no military solution, and said PACE deals with human rights, whereas security issues are another matter.
The German Bundestag deputy noted that the OSCE Minsk Group member countries and the conflicting parties are endeavoring to ease tension for over twenty years.
Doris Barnett added that the Minsk Group is the only format which all conflicting parties accept toward achieving a resolution to the Karabakh conflict, and that PACE needs to support the Minsk Group and provide impartial reports.
PACE on Tuesday voted against MP Robert Walter’s (UK) anti-Armenian report entitled “Escalation of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and Other Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan,” but adopted MP Milica Marković’s (Bosnia and Herzegovina) anti-Armenian report about Sarsang Reservoir in Nagorno-Karabakh, and entitled “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water.”
To note, representatives of the PACE Unified European Left Group, the Socialist Group, and the European People’s Party voted against both anti-Armenian reports.