Today.Az » Politics » Ganira Pashayeva: "PACE should not apply double standards towards Armenia and ignore violation of human rights in this country"
14 April 2008 [09:25] - Today.Az
Day.Az interview with Ganira Pashayeva, member of the Azerbaijani delegation in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.
-The spring session of PACE will start soon. Which issue will be a priority for the Azerbaijani delegation?
-Elections were held in Russia, Serbia and Armenia. Naturally, the discussions will be held in connection with these elections. In particular, the discussed will be the post-election situation in Armenia and we will certainly take part in these discussions and express our opinion.
Official structures of Armenia arranged elections in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, which do not comply to the international norms. Moreover, arrangement of elections in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan has a negative impact on the conflict settlement through negotiation and promotes tenseness in the region.
Armenia has previously held elections in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan and international organizations spoke about the inadmissibility of such a step. However, Armenians, ignoring the reaction of the world society, held elections of the President of Armenia in the occupied lands. We will raise this issue both in the framework of the assembly and before the Ministers Committee of the Council of Europe. We want them to react to Armenia's negative behavior.
-Will the issues of elections of President in Armenia, which also influenced Azerbaijan, be discussed? For example, intensive clashes on the front, which occurred on March 4.
-Of course, mostly, the elections in Armenia are their domestic affair. We will just focus on the moments, which did not bypass Azerbaijan, resulting from this situation in Armenia, including, the intensive violation of ceasefire in the region. After creating tenseness in Armenia, the powers of this country decided to distract attention of the world society from their domestic problems and started provocations on the front line, instead of undertaking civilian steps to improve the situation.
These were steps, which may create a stir any time. Moreover, we will stress basic principles of the Council of Europe on observing human rights and other issues, resulting from it. In this context it should be noted that double standards should not be applied towards Armenia and violations of human rights should be taken into account. Otherwise, this will create distrust to this organization.
-Serzh Sarkissyan has made touch declarations immediately after inauguration. The parliamentary hearings were arranged on Karabakh. How should we respond?
-Serzh Sarkissyan's declarations, made both during the pre-election campaign and during the inauguration speech, should create concern. In fact, he is a member of the old team and shows that he will continue the actions of this team.
It is necessary to hold similar discussions in the Azerbaijani parliament. Apart from discussing Armenia, we should criticize position of some Russian parliamentarians, including K.Zarulin, who said that Armenia should appeal to Russia for recognition of independence of Nagorno Karabakh. This is Russia's open support for separatist republics.
-Armenia voiced official announcements of the necessity to settle the occupied lands, so that Azerbaijan would make concessions. Why haven't there been a reaction to such announcements?
-PACE has adopted the due document, which criticized the announcements. Moreover, a mission has been arranged including representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing states. The final document also stressed inadmissibility of the settlement of the occupied lands. In this sense, Armenia's failure to comply with the resolution and decisions of the Council of Europe, thus ignoring international law, will be discussed in PACE.
/Day.Az/
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