The US diplomats, Russian and French Minsk Group have again warned on Friday the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) it does not undermine their efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by adopting pro-Azerbaijani resolutions this week in Strasbourg.
In a joint statement, James Warlick, Igor Popov and Pierre Andrieu stressed that the co-leaders of the Minsk Group of the OSCE “remained the only legitimate interlocutors for negotiations.”
“We appreciate the interest of members of PACE, but urge that measures are not taken, as they could compromise the mandate of the Minsk Group and complicate the negotiations”, they kept insisting.
Two draft resolutions on Karabakh were approved by the Standing Committees of the PACE in November. One of them was developed by Robert Walter, a pro-British parliamentary Azerbaijan. It requires the Karabakh “return to Azerbaijan” and said that the three mediating powers should “consider reviewing” their peace efforts accordingly.
The other paper by MP Milica Markovic Bosnian accuses Armenia of “deliberately deprive” Azerbaijani farmers water that flows from the reservoir Sarsang in northern Karabakh. It also calls for “the immediate withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the region.”
Armenia and Karabakh strongly rejected the proposed resolutions, accusing their authors to have close ties with the Azerbaijani government, thus calling into doubt their impartiality. Criticism has been particularly sharp against Walter, who would have received Turkish citizenship and would have moved to Turkey last year.
The co-chairs of the Minsk Group have also criticized the resolution and Walter warned that PACE had to not “disturb the negotiation process and hinders progress towards a settlement,” in a statement in November.
However, Azerbaijan welcomed the proposed text. He also lambasted the US mediators, Russian and French, explaining that their long peace efforts have produced “no results.”
Claire © armenews.com