David Babayan: Walter keeps report name, gets a gratuity
There is zero likelihood that member of the PACE Political Affairs and Democracy Committee Robert Walter will change the name of his report “Escalation of violence in NagornoKarabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan”, David Babayan - the spokesman for the president of the NagpornoKarabakh Republic – told Panorama.am.
British MP Robert Walter known for his pro-Azerbaijani stance in PACE was appointed as PACE Political Affairs Committee rapporteur on the Karabakh problem on October 1, 2014.
It was announced earlier that R. Walter will visit NagornoKarabakh through the territory of Azerbaijan, but that trip never took palace.
“Such a thing is out of the question. We informed him beforehand of official Stepanakert’s opinion: the report’s name and contents should be changed. This was not done so it is improper to speak about crossing the border,” Mr. Babayan said.
In his words, Walter openly showed his ‘picture’ by visiting Azerbaijan while writing the report and keeping the report’s name, and he received caviar as his ‘gratuity’.
Asked how Armenian diplomacy should respond to that, David Babayan replied that Armenian diplomacy has nothing to do here. He added: “It is something like a crime, a report based on bribery. What shall our diplomacy do? We did what ought to be done. That man did not visit Armenia and Artsakh during the report’s preparation. The problem is that we see bad developments of this kind in various European structures. In fact, caviar diplomacy leads to caviar democracy in Europe, that is to say, to the degradation of classical democracy. No one is conducting an investigation - this is the main problem, rather than the report which is subjective and will not make a difference”.
As for the report, Babayan said it is a ‘bought, ordered report that was written in Azerbaijan by Aliyev and Mamedyarov, while Walter will just put his signature on it”.