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Dear Colleagues

 After receiving the last letter of the Chairman of the Azerbaijani
 Delegation to Euronest PA, I can only note with deep regret that my worst
 apprehensions are already coming true.

 I had cautioned in time, that difficult issues pertaining to the national
 interests of individual states  (no matter whether these are rightly or
 wrongly interpreted) would emerge on the agendas of both the Plenary and
 the Committee meetings of the Euronest PA.

 But I also predicted  that the esteemed Delegation of the Azerbaijani
 Parliament will inevitably make use of this (as well as any other)
 international organization only to turn it into a battlefield against
 Armenia and Mountainous Karabakh.
 And regrettably this process has already begun and in full rolling.
 The letter of Azerbaijani Chairman, loaded with resentment and hostility,
 charged with groundless accusations is the first sign of it.

 I feel really sorry that the commitment expressed by President Buzek and
 others to avoid using Euronest PA as a loudspeaker for local and regional
 disputes rather than a platform for cooperation and EU integration has
 been provocatively disrespected.

 I have no intention here to describe in detail the genocidal policy of
 Azerbaijan towards Armenians in Lower Karabakh and Nakhichevan where
 Armenians were exterminated or expelled during the decades prior to the
 restoration of Armenian independence, or remind of the horrors of Sumgait
 and Baku ethnic cleansings immediately before that. Nor do I have the
 intention to explain why and how the self-determination and secession of
 Mountainous Karabakh became the only and single way to save its Armenian
 population from pogroms, mass killings and forcible expulsions.

 I am informed that the Delegation of Azerbaijan proposed its capital as a
 place for the next Euronest PA Plenary session. I believe that the letter
 signed by their Chairman is clearly revealing the real intentions behind
 the objections against Armenia's Independence Day. After reading it one
 certainly can imagine what kind of agenda will be attempted to obtrude on
 our Assembly in Baku.

 It is not an incident that up to this day no delegation from the East has
 exhibited such persistent intolerance as some Azerbaijani members of
 Euronest.

 All the member countries of the Eastern Partnership have their particular
 painful problems: Moldova is patiently working on the Transdnistria
 matters; Georgia is doing the same concerning its issues of Abkhazia and
 Ossetia; Armenia is struggling against the grave consequences of the
 illegal blockade imposed by its neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan,
 restraining at the same time from aggressive militaristic statements,
 trying not to hinder the efforts of the Minsk Group; Ukraine is under
 extremely difficult circumstances protecting its national identity, unity
 and security. And the progressive national political forces in all these
 countries are united by a common understanding: Euronest is a unique
 chance for our cooperation with the EU in terms of democratization, rule
 of law, fundamental rights, fair and transparent elections etc; and no
 matter how complicated the external problems are, they cannot serve as an
 excuse for denying freedom and justice for own people. This thought was
 most specifically expressed by the Speaker of the Georgian Parliament Mr
 David Bakradze on the Community of Democracies' Forum in Tbilisi on 19 May
 2011: "We will never ever use the question of the occupied territories as
 a pretext to slow down the process of democratisation."

 Dear Colleagues,

 I fully understand that holding a Plenary Session outside of Brussels is
 both expensive and not conventional, so taking into consideration the
 letter of our Azerbaijani colleague, the most comfortable decision seems
 to prevent Euronest PA from having meetings either in Baku or in Yerevan.
 But the easiest decision is not always the fair one. In this particular
 case, preventing Armenia from holding a Euronest PA meeting in Yerevan in
 the dates we proposed, would be perceived as a tangible success for one
 Delegation publically offending another one. That alone would push the
 Euronest towards the swamp of the local and regional disputes. Is it
 acceptable for us? I don't think so.

 And if now or in the future we nevertheless are going to select a country
 and a city for holding either Plenary or Committee meeting of Euronest,
 please let us seriously consider and reflect upon where such an event is
 more likely to serve our common purposes:

 In Azerbaijan? Where the occasion will inevitably be used as an arena for
 the fierce anti-Armenian propaganda and justification for the developments
 which recently became the reason for sharp criticism from the European
 Parliament;

 Or in Armenia? Where the society is deeply engaged in a vivid discussion
 about indispensable reforms, necessary anti-corruption measures, future
 fair elections, and where even the authorities have become more and more
 aware of the unavoidability of the major changes.

 With deep respect,

 Vahan Hovhannesyan

 Vice-President of the Euronest PA
 Head of the Armenian Delegation