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At the press conference held on February 1 the Head of the RA NA Delegation to PACE Hermine Naghdalyan, the members of the delegation Naira Zohrabyan, Naira Karapetyan and Vahan Babayan presented details on the works of the PACE Winter Session held in Strasbourg on January 24-30.

The Head of the Delegation Hermine Naghdalyan informed that this Session was full of important problems and resolutions, the Armenian Delegation worked overloaded, taking part in the debates on all the resolutions and reports of the agenda. The Head of the Delegation noted that except the well-known anti-Armenian two ill-famed Resolutions, items regarding the terrorism fighting, the protection of the Human Rights Defenders and the rights of the NGOs were discussed, where the Armenian Delegation also actively took part. Hermine Naghdalyan touched upon in detail the debates of the anti-Armenian Resolutions included in the agenda of the Plenary Session that, as a result of the debate the members of the Parliamentary Assembly rejected the Resolution “Escalation of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” authored by Robert Walter, the Resolution on Sarsang Reservoir was adopted, the author of which Milica Markovic stubbornly refused all the proposals of visiting the appropriate region and getting acquainted with the problem. Hermine Naghdalyan also noted that Azerbaijan also rejected the proposal on jointly using the reservoir made by the NKR Deputy Prime Minister Artur Aghabekyan.

The member of the Delegation Naira Zohrabyan also considered a serious success the denial of the Resolution “Escalation of Violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan” in PACE, but she underlined that there are still things to be done regarding the Resolution on Sarsang Reservoir. Mrs Zohrabyan also touched upon the issue why the Russian Delegation to the PACE did not take part in the voting of the Resolutions. She reminded those present that the Russian Delegation was still deprived of the right to vote, and even in case of big wish, could not take part in voting.

Naira Karapetyan also referred to the work done by the Delegation and informed that the Resolution on Sarsang Reservoir consists of three parts: resolution, report and special opinion. It was noted that in the special opinion the Armenian Delegation submitted its viewpoints.

The member of the Delegation Vahan Babayan in his speech talked about the sounded criticism and underlined the importance of giving adequate evaluation to the work of the Delegation.

The Head of the Delegation Hermine Naghdalyan thanked all the structures and the persons, which by different means supported the members of the Delegation to reach the recorded success. Talking about the Nagorno Karabakh problem, Hermine Naghdalyan has stressed that in this matter the political line of Armenia in the PACE has been and remains the same: any issue regarding Karabakh should be discussed only with its participation.

The members of the Delegation answered the journalists’ questions.