Armenia shows disrespect by boycotting the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe's Karabakh subcommittee, according to an Azerbaijani MP.
"One of the most important issues for us is the work of the subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh," the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, Samad Seyidov, said.
"The subcommittee was established on the basis of the PACE Bureau decision and is in force now. We responded positively to participation in the subcommittee and are ready to join all its initiatives. Unfortunately, Armenia disregards the PACE Bureau decision and is refusing to participate in its work," Seyidov continued.
He said that Armenia's disregard for the PACE Bureau decision to revive the subcommittee and its refusal to observe the principles of the Council of Europe unmasked Armenian policy.
"We would like to inform all representatives of the Council of Europe, including its leadership, that the right of the council to make demands of its member states, to raise their fulfilment of their obligations, is being very much called into question. The failure to fulfill this decision, as well as the failure to fulfill the decision passed on Nagorno-Karabakh in 2005, and Armenia’s disregard for these processes reduce the authority, power and influence of the Council of Europe as well as Armenia.
"We have stated many times that we will not limit the activity of the Nagorno-Karabakh subcommittee to the framework of the Nagorno-Karabakh committee. If you listen to the speeches of the Azerbaijani delegation and the issues we raise, you will see that the Council of Europe is, figuratively speaking, a large committee on Nagorno-Karabakh. To be honest, we were not interested in limiting the discussions on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem to just one committee. But we showed a constructive position and invited Armenia to this committee, we took a step to show how 'constructive' they are. Now we can see that we were right.
"Unfortunately, Armenia takes a non-constructive position in the Council of Europe and other international organizations and in bilateral talks. Therefore, the international community and institutions should know that in supporting Armenia's behaviour, they are weakening their own position. We know this full well and the Azerbaijani delegation will continue its work on this."
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