Tuesday, January 26 2016 14:16

PACE has approved the resolution entitled "Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water" (rapporteur Milica Markovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina). 

Introducing the reports, Markovic said the territory of the Sarsang reservoir is controlled by Armenia, meantime "it is the territory of Azerbaijan." She blamed the Armenian side for deliberately depriving the Azerbaijani settlements of the water from Sarsang, which affects the agriculture, flora and fauna.  She said the use of water from the Sarsang reservoir by the residents of Nagorny Karabakh and Azerbaijan is in question. The problem is within the competence of the OSCE MG, but no solution has been found to it within the past 20 years, Milica Markovic claimed. She said her resolution is not about the political content of the problem, but the humanitarian one. She said about 130,000 people in Nagorny Karabakh and nearly 400,000 people in Azerbaijan use the water from the reservoir. However, the canal is under control of Armenia by 80%. Markovic expressed her respect for the OSCE MG saying PACE should not close eyes on the problems in the territory of the Organization.  

She blamed the Armenian side for creating obstacles to the visits to Sarsang from the Karabakh side. Milica Markovic said she had repeatedly applied to the Armenian delegation with a request to organize her visit to Sarsang, but every time the delegates brought arguments to prevent her visit, even such argument as the Constitutional referendum in Armenia. Milica Markovic said she was suggested to apply to the authorities of Nagorny Karabakh which is not recognized by PACE or any other international organization.  Eventually, Markovic said, she was told she could visit Nagorny Karabakh in winter 2016, but unfavorable weather conditions prevented her visited. Therefore she submitted the resolution without visiting Sarsang.

She said both the sides admit that there is a problem, but the problem is how to solve it to satisfy both the sides. Markovic said the Armenian side had three complains over the document, in particular, to the wordings used in it. The Armenian side was against the term "occupied territories," she said, but that term is used in many international documents, Markovic said.