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On October 29 the Chairman of the RA NA Standing Committee on Foreign Relations Armen Rustamyan met with the deputies of the European Parliament Michele Rivazi/ the Greens-Liberal Union Group of Europe, the member of the European Parliament, Euronest/ and Damien Abad /European People’s Party Group/.

Welcoming the guest the Committee Chairman emphasized their visit to the Nagorno Karabakh Republic, which, according to him, gives wider opportunity to the delegations to comprehensively get familiarized with the Karabakh problem, find ways for the solution.

At the guests’ request Armen Rustamyan touched upon the regional problems, the European integration, adopted as Armenia’s ruling priority, the signed protocols on the Armenian-Turkish relations normalization, the reasons of suspending their ratification, the ways of the NK conflict solution, the issues of the refugees’ return and compensation, the availability of the POWs in the conflicting countries, etc.

He reaffirmed, in particular, that the Armenian side expects the settlement of the NK conflict within the OSCE Minsk Group framework, as the choice of the new format would cause numerous problems.

Armen Rustamyan informed the European counterparts that the Armenians of the Nagorno Karabakh have been self-determined in accordance with the legislation of the USSR, which was functioning during that period, and today he sees the settlement of the problem exclusively with independent status.

The Chairperson of the NA Standing Committee on European Integration Naira Zohrabyan also received the deputies of the European Parliament Michele Rivazi and Damien Abad.

Welcoming the guests, Mrs Zohrabyan highlighted the visit of the deputies of the European Parliament to Karabakh, being sure that the European parliamentarians had seen people living in peace, a state, which had established institutes. The Committee Chairperson is sure that being in Karabakh the delegates of the European Parliament have understood that the NK independence has no alternative and it’s not possible to impose those people to live under the subordination of Azerbaijan. She is sure that the guests have received objective and specific information on the NK conflict and they will make reports with unbiased positions in the European Parliament. Naira Zohrabyan noted that it was important for Armenia that in the international structures, where decisions were made on the region, Armenia, NK, objective assessments would be voiced, in order the international community would have unbiased and distinct information on Karabakh conflict. Touching upon the Kirilov resolution, which was adopted in February by the European Parliament, the Committee Chairperson noted that though the resolution was of consultative character, nevertheless Azerbaijan made it a campaign card in its hand was able to distinctly use its political influence: the President and the political elite of that country after the adoption of the Kirilov resolution began to announce that the EU was with them, and it was after the adoption of that resolution that the bellicose announcements of Azerbaijan’s political elite became more regular.

The Committee Chairperson also noted that during the recent period in the international structures, which should be consistent in their fundamental demands: human rights, democracy, justice, unfortunately, in some cases, the оil dollars have influence. “Wе don’t have oil dollars, we have truth, which we should in any way oppose the Turkish-Azerbaijani oil dollars,” Mrs Zohrabyan noted. The deputy of the European Parliament Michele Rivazi proposed to create an investigating committee to see in what conditions was Azerbaijan kept its Azeri refugees. Naira Zohrabyan agreed with the deputy, also proposing to form an Observation Mission in the European Parliament and go to Jugha to see on the spot the cultural vandalism carried out in Julfa of Nakhijevan under the sponsorship of Azerbaijan.

At the meeting other issues were discussed too. The representatives of the political forces of RA National Assembly: the head of the ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisyan, the member of the RPA faction Artak Zakaryan, the member of the PAP faction Vardan Bostanjyan, the member of the Country of Law faction Hovhannes Margaryan and the head of the Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan met with the deputies of the European Parliament Michele Rivazi and Damien Abad.

Mra Rivazi said that they had already visited Nagorno Karabakh. The main reason of the visit was the well-known resolution, which was adopted in the European Parliament.

At the guests’ request the representatives of the political forces of the National Assembly touched upon the Artsakh problem, presented their understanding on the Armenian-Turkish relations, the ways of the financial support being given to Karabakh by Armenia, discussed issues concerning the POWs.

The head of the ARF faction Vahan Hovhannisyan and the member of the PAP faction Vardan Bostanjyan said that every year Armenia showed financial support in the form of credits to the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. According to the speakers, there was no understanding of POW today, and as a rule, the peaceful civilians in the borderline become prisoners, which are replaced by the assistance of the Red Cross. During the war actions of the beginning of the 90s there is almost nothing known about the destiny of lost.

According to the assessment of the member of the RPA faction Artak Zakaryan, two important steps should be taken for the right of self-determination, which was internationally adopted to prevent the bellicose campaign of Azerbaijan and the distortions of the historical facts and present the truth to the world community, especially the parliaments of the world.

Touching upon the perspective of the Armenian-Turkish relations the head of the Heritage faction Styopa Safaryan said that Turkey had blockaded Armenia in connection with the issue of Nagorno Karabakh since 1993, and today it was continuing to condition the bilateral relations with Karabakh problem. It would be good for some European structures instead of speculating the Artsakh problem, to listen to the truth and make Turkey change its policy.

The member of the Country of Law Hovhannes Margaryan also expressed concern in the NK issue for the posture of the European political figures, reminding that the non-punished any crime bore a new crime.

Agreeing with the views expressed by the Armenian counterparts the deputies of the European Parliament ensured that they would take steps to elaborate new strategy, they would draw the attention of the European Parliament to the real facts in order to neutralize the unacceptable arguments in the resolution.