OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Chairman Joao Soares and the head of the Armenian delegation, Aram Safaryan, clashed at the assembly's annual session.
The session , the 19th annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, took place in Oslo on 6 to 10 July.
Aram Safaryan criticized remarks made by Joao Soares to a BBC correspondent in Azerbaijan about the process to settle the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"You said that the Armenian president did not have enough authority to advance the process. The president and nation are unanimous on several issues, as well as on the welfare of the Armenian people. The presidents of France, the USA and Russia made a statement on Nagorno-Karabakh in Canada, the Madrid principles have been passed. But today we often hear militaristic threats from Azerbaijan. The lack of trust between us is palpable."
The chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly did not accept Sarafyan's criticism.
"Aram, you heard my interview, but you did not understand my opinions because of your poor knowledge of English. We had an opportunity to discuss it before the meeting. So why are speaking about it now? I repeat again: my position has been expressed several times. I repeated it in Yerevan, Baku and Tbilisi. This position corresponds with the work of [OSCE representative for the South Caucasus] Goran Lennmarker.
"My position is the position of someone who wants to make their contribution to the peaceful solution of any conflict, someone who tries to observe the principles of independence and human rights. I have never betrayed this principle. I don't think it's right to kick out at each other or attack each other. I admire Azerbaijan’s work at the first stage. It deserves to be admired. Azerbaijan has applied the best model of development - the Norwegian model.'
APA
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