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Official Kremlin Int'l News Broadcast
January 12, 2007 Friday
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH PACE PRESIDENT RENE VAN DER LINDEN
INTERFAX, 14:00, JANUARY 12, 2007
[parts omitted]
Q: The Council of Europe has passed Resolution No. 1416, which
directly condemns Armenia for the occupation of Azerbaijan's
territory, I mean Nagorny Karabakh. Why doesn't the Council of Europe
impose sanctions on Armenia in this case? Does the Council of Europe
have such a mechanism? If it does, why is it not used? Then what is
the point of passing resolutions?
And my second question about Azerbaijani (inaudible)... in Armenia.
The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry has informed all
international organizations that 5,000 Azeris are held prisoner in
Armenia. How can the Council of Europe assist in investigating this
issue objectively and bringing the guilty party to justice and
releasing these people?
Rene van der Linden: On the last question, I cannot give you this
information. We have this special group under the leadership of
Russel Johnson who is dealing with this. And I am not informed about
this question at this point.
On the first question, we are not a military force. We are a value
community which uses soft power. That means convince people and try
through dialogue, through communication with the other party to find
peaceful solutions. And I agree that this conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia is a very sensitive and also a very painful one. And it
is in the interest of Armenia especially to solve this conflict
because they will suffer the most. They are quite isolated. They are
quite isolated, and if you look to the young generation, a number of
young people went abroad to look for a better future. Yet their two
leaders did not succeed and find a common solution.
The sanctions we have is to, first, we can take away the voting
rights of the members in the Council of Europe, of their delegation.
And the strongest repercussion can be that we postponed the
membership of a member state. We don't consider this in this case.
But in the future, in the case of using force, military force,
weapons, that could happen again as it happens at that time in Greece
and in Turkey.
January 12, 2007 Friday
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH PACE PRESIDENT RENE VAN DER LINDEN
INTERFAX, 14:00, JANUARY 12, 2007
[parts omitted]
Q: The Council of Europe has passed Resolution No. 1416, which
directly condemns Armenia for the occupation of Azerbaijan's
territory, I mean Nagorny Karabakh. Why doesn't the Council of Europe
impose sanctions on Armenia in this case? Does the Council of Europe
have such a mechanism? If it does, why is it not used? Then what is
the point of passing resolutions?
And my second question about Azerbaijani (inaudible)... in Armenia.
The Azerbaijani National Security Ministry has informed all
international organizations that 5,000 Azeris are held prisoner in
Armenia. How can the Council of Europe assist in investigating this
issue objectively and bringing the guilty party to justice and
releasing these people?
Rene van der Linden: On the last question, I cannot give you this
information. We have this special group under the leadership of
Russel Johnson who is dealing with this. And I am not informed about
this question at this point.
On the first question, we are not a military force. We are a value
community which uses soft power. That means convince people and try
through dialogue, through communication with the other party to find
peaceful solutions. And I agree that this conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia is a very sensitive and also a very painful one. And it
is in the interest of Armenia especially to solve this conflict
because they will suffer the most. They are quite isolated. They are
quite isolated, and if you look to the young generation, a number of
young people went abroad to look for a better future. Yet their two
leaders did not succeed and find a common solution.
The sanctions we have is to, first, we can take away the voting
rights of the members in the Council of Europe, of their delegation.
And the strongest repercussion can be that we postponed the
membership of a member state. We don't consider this in this case.
But in the future, in the case of using force, military force,
weapons, that could happen again as it happens at that time in Greece
and in Turkey.