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The head of ‘Armenian National Congress’ (ANC) faction of the Armenian parliament  Levon Zourabian sent a letter to Hans van Baalen, President Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party. In his letter, L. Zourabian calls on Hans van Baalen to vote against the anti-Armenian resolutions presented to the PACE. An English version of the letter submitted by ANC’s press office reads: 

“Dear Mr. van Baalen.

I write this letter on behalf of the Armenian National Congress to request for the ALDE’s support in relation with two draft resolutions to be discussed on 26th January during the winter session of PACE in Strasbourg.

Both drafts, one titled “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” (presented by rapporteur Robert Walter) and the other one, named “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water” (by rapporteur Milica Marcovic), contain language that, if adopted, will be extremely harmful to the overall process of the negotiations on the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict conducted under auspices of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, co-chaired by the United States, Russia and France.

Therefore I ask you to recommend to the members of the ALDE Group in the PACE to vote against  those resolutions, based on the following grounds.

1.      The proposed drafts undermine the negotiations process led by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group. In response to questions received by the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group about the report and draft resolution currently under discussion in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) they issued a statement saying: “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.” 

2.      While recognizing in the Explanatory Memorandum that the rapporteur's "purpose was neither to substitute myself to the role of the Minsk Group, the only mediation format recognized by both sides concerned, nor to try to propose a solution to this long-standing conflict," Rober Walter, however, proposed his own solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the draft's Paragraph 14, which sharply contradicts to the main principles of the settlement  currently being discussed under auspices of the Minsk Group, which were published by the Co-Chairs in a number of statements (see, for instance, ).

3.    Both drafts use language, implying that Nagorno-Karabakh and the territories outside it are occupied by Armenia. This contradicts to the UN Security Council resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The resolution 822 (1993) clearly identifies as occupying force the “local Armenian forces” of Nagorno-Karabakh, while the resolution 884 (1993) calls upon the Government of Armenia to use its influence to achieve compliance by the Armenians of the Nagorny Karabakh” with the UN Security Council resolutions on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (). The drafts contradict as well to the decisions of the OSCE, which deals with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of the UN Security Council’s resolutions. Based on its decision of the 1994 Budapest Summit, the OSCE does not consider the conflict as one solely between Armenia and Azerbaijan, but also views Nagorno-Karabakh as party to the conflict (as reflected in the following statement: “The Chairman-in-Office confirms previous OSCE decisions on the status of the parties, i.e. the participation of the two State parties to the conflict and of the other conflicting party (Nagorno-Karabakh) in the whole negotiation process, including in the Minsk Conference,”
).

The role of Nagorno-Karabakh as a party to the ceasefire agreement was also acknowledged in the PACE Resolution 1047 (1994) ( in Nagorno-Karabakh). Walter, however, falsely states in his draft thatResolution 1416 (2005) and Recommendation 1690 (2005) "so far constitute the only Assembly texts dealing exclusively with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict."

The adoption of such texts, in a word, will only contribute to distrust between the Armenians and Azerbaijanis, entrenching their present irreconcilable stances and leading to even more destabilization in a region, which already has potential for explosive developments, threatening the regional and world stability and security. Therefore, I appeal to you to make all possible efforts to ensure that this information goes to the representatives of the ALDE party in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, so that they make right choice when voting on these drafts”.