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The PACE Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development will hold a meeting in Paris today to discuss the report ‘Intentional Deprivation of Residents of Azerbaijani Border Areas of Drinking Water’.  The very name of the report drew a wide public response and sparked a scandal.

The spokeswoman for Foreign Ministry of the Nagorno Karabakh Republic Ani Sargsyan earlier responded to a question of Tert.am regarding that discussion.  When asked if the PACE rapporteur on that issue was expected to visit Karabakh, A. Sargsyan replied: “On November 16 we received a letter from Director General of the PACE Secretariat Mario Martins who requested us to assist with a visit of PACE rapporteur on the Sarsang reservoir Milica Markovic to the NKR. In our reply letter, we said that despite our reservations and serious comments concerning the report’s name and its drafting process, the authorities of NKR are prepared for cooperation with PACE.

At the same time the inadmissibility of attempts to politicize the issue was stressed. We strongly believe that the status of Nagorno Karabakh as well as various aspects of the conflict - whose settlement efforts are spearheaded by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs (the only mutually agreed format that was given an international mandate) -  should not be addressed in the report. The OSCE Minsk Group Co-chairs also take such an approach, and they said in the statement of November 12, 2015 that “considering the sensitivity of the negotiations, attempts to change the format or create parallel mechanisms can disrupt the negotiation process and impede progress towards a settlement”. We hope that NKR’s readiness for cooperation will be perceived by Milica Markovic responsibly with the aim of preparing a report based on the principles of objectivity and impartiality”.

Experts say that there will be no need for such ‘cooperation’ if the PACE Committee adopts the scandalous report of M. Markovic.