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Adoption of Milica Markovic’s report at the winter plenary session of PACE is the lesser of the two evils, the spokesman for Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), vice speaker of the Armenian parliament Edward Sharmazanov told reporters after the sitting  of Executive Body of the RPA yesterday, on January 29.

As was reported, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on January 26 voted on two reports:  “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water” – a scandalous report prepared by Milica Markovic, MP from Bosnia and Herzegovina - was adopted by 98 votes to 71, with 40 abstentions. Another controversial report that drew a wide response - “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” prepared by British MP Robert Walter who holds Turkish citizenship was rejected in a 66-77 vote. 

“There are two opinions. The first is that it is just paper, and the second one is that the report poses a serious threat. I do not share both opinions. Of course, it is not just paper since PACE is a serious structure , but  on the other hand this report is legally non-binding,” Sharmazanov said.

“It is necessary to understand that there are states which – traditionally, regardless of a document’s content – have always voted and will vote against Armenia,” the vice speaker said.

He at the same time noted that Republican Party positively assesses the work of the Armenian delegation in PACE.

According to Sharmazanov, both resolutions were of a non-pro-Armenian nature, but Walter’s report posed a greater danger as it represented an attempt by Azerbaijan to move the discussion of the Karabakh problem to other platforms, which is inadmissible.

“In this context, the resolution’s rejection was important, and this is also success of our diplomacy,” he stressed.