It's necessary to find solution over Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, Anne Brasseur, Chairperson of the PACE said at the PACE Winter Session in Strasbourg.
She urged a solution to the conflict saying it continues for many years and there is no progress in the peace process. Anne Brasseur hopes the debates during the Session will help the sides make a breakthrough in the process. The PACE agenda includes two anti-Armenian draft resolutions - on "Escalation of violence in Nagorno- Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan" (rapporteur Robert Walter, UK) and on "Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water" (rapporteur Milica Markovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina). The draft resolutions contain wordings running counter to the Armenian side's stand on these issues. The efforts of the Armenian Delegation to PACE to remove these documents from the winter session agenda have failed. The documents should be discussed on January 26.
Meantime, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs made a statement on January 22 reminding PACE, and other regional and international organizations, that the Minsk Group remains the only accepted format for negotiations. "We appreciate the interest paid by PACE members, but urge that steps not be taken which could undermine the Minsk Group's mandate from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe or complicate ongoing negotiations," the statement says.
Baku, in turn, blamed the OSCE MG co-chairs for acting "as monopolist" in the negotiation process saying Azerbaijan will continue its activities in this area in all relevant international organizations.
For his part, Tigran Balayan, Spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of Armenia, has told ArmInfo that the latest statement by the OSCE Minsk Group co- chairs concerning the expediency of discussing and adopting the two reports on the Karabakh issue by PACE can be considered as one more message addressed to Azerbaijan. "The co-chairs have reiterated that Azerbaijan's attempts to drive the Karabakh peace beyond the OSCE MG format will undermine the negotiations for peaceful resolution of the conflict," he says.