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Letter Of RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan To NATO Parliamentary Assem

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  • Letter Of RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan To NATO Parliamentary Assem

    LETTER OF RA NA SPEAKER HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN TO NATO PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT JOHN TANNER

    NOYAN TAPAN
    JULY 29, 2010
    STEPANAKERT

    YEREVAN, JULY 29, NOYAN TAPAN. Letter of RA NA Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan
    to NATO Parliamentary Assembly President John Tanner.

    "Dear Mr. Tanner,

    I am addressing you in regards to a possible report on the
    Nagorno-Karabakh issue, which is envisaged to be prepared for the
    discussion at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. Talking frankly,
    I am surprised that such a step may have been taken without proper
    consultations with the members of the Armenian Delegation to the NATO
    Parliamentary Assembly.

    As is known, currently the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process runs under
    the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmen - USA, France and
    Russia. It is our strong conviction that given the confidentiality,
    specificity and delicacy of the negotiations, the initiatives held in
    formats other than the Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship, even with a good
    intent, preclude a great danger of jeopardizing the negotiation process
    and undermining the mediation efforts. Therefore, any initiative on
    the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution requires prior consultations
    with the Co-Chair States of the Minsk Group, having in view that the
    USA and France are both NATO members.

    The attempts of Azerbaijan to raise the Nagorno-Karabakh issue within
    different international formats are aimed at advertising Azerbaijan's
    own perception of the conflict resolution with disregard of the
    entirety of principles proclaimed by the Co-Chairs as the basis for
    the conflict resolution. It is worth mentioning that the Co-Chair
    countries voted against the resolution proposed by Azerbaijan at
    the UN General Assembly session in March 2008, by stating that the
    "resolution selectively propagates only certain of the principles
    [of the conflict resolution] to the exclusion of others".

    Just a few days ago, exactly on July 17, Minister of Foreign Affairs
    of the Russian Federation Sergei Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs
    of France Bernard Kouchner, and Deputy Secretary of State of the
    United States of America James Steinberg issued a statement where they
    reconfirmed the principles and elements of the conflict resolution
    stated by the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group's Co-Chair countries
    at the G8 Summit convened on June 26, 2010 in Muskoka. They once
    more stressed the point that the mentioned principles and elements
    have been conceived as an integrated whole and that any attempt to
    give preferences over other principles would make it impossible to
    achieve a balanced solution.

    With due respect to such an authoritative organization, as the NATO
    Parliamentary Assembly, we consider it our duty to remind that not in
    the distant past we had already experienced that the NATO PA report on
    Nagorno-Karabakh had provoked selective references, unsubstantiated
    interpretations, and wrong speculations. I believe that the report
    in no way has contributed to the creation of a favorable environment
    for the settlement process. I do not see any reason why this new
    initiative may yield a different result.It was due to the clear
    understanding of the sensitivity of the issue that the Secretary
    General Rasmussen and other NATO high ranking officials voiced their
    strong support for the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group on different
    occasions and stressed that NATO did not have direct involvement in
    the issue nor did it play a role of its own in the mediation process.

    Based on these concerns, Honorable Mr. President, I would like to
    strongly advise and suggest that the NATO Parliamentary Assembly
    refrain from addressing the issue on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. "




    From: A. Papazian
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