Your trusted source

“The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has gradually turned into a pavilion in a Baku market where one can conduct trade and buy documents, which is a blow to European values. This is what causes our resentment because Artsakh views democracy is a key principle,” David Babayan, the spokesman for the president of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic (NKR), said at discussion held today at Yerevan’s Media Center when commenting on the fact that on November 4 a PACE Committee adopted the rapporteur Robert Walter’s scandalous report controversially called “Escalation of violence in Nagorno Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan”.

According to D. Babayan, it is obviously an Azerbaijani report, while member of PACE Political Affairs and Democracy Committee Robert Walter just put his signature on it.

“The report smacks of Azerbaijani caviar and oil. Naturally we could not participate in any discussion of such documents. Such behavior of Azerbaijan was foreseeable, but we find it unfortunate that corruption processes permeate into PACE,” Babayan noted.
In his words, official Stepanakert declared repeatedly that it is ready for cooperation in preparing any report, but the process should be reasonable and objective.

“The report was initially prepared either in the foreign ministry or the Azerbaijani presidential office. Naturally we could not consent to any interaction within the framework of that document. We repeatedly sent messages telling them to reconsider the report’s philosophy and change the contents, and in that case we would provide assistance. Yet nothing changed,” David Babayan said.
He added that Robert Walter’s wife, who is of Turkish descent, has her own business interests in Azerbaijan, while Walter himself wants a comfortable life after retirement.

As was reported, on October 1, 2014 the PACE Political Affairs and Democracy Committee instructed MP Robert Walter known for his pro-Azerbaijani stance to prepare a report on Nagorno Karabakh. The report’s very name “Escalation of violence in Nagorno Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” provoked a scandal and attracted harsh criticism. In an earlier interview with Panorama.am, David Babayan voiced once again the position of Karabakh authorities on the report being written by R. Walter: “The report has to be impartial and objective, and not represent a study done by order”. “Any documents smelling of caviar and oil are unacceptable to us,” he stressed.