The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) kicked off its Winter Session on January 25 with the election of its new president, Pedro Agramunt of Spain, who has been known for his pro-Azeri slant. As reported by CivilNet, PACE had already been attracting controversy in recent days with the anticipation of debates on two anti-Armenian draft resolutions regarding Nagorno-Karabakh.
PACE debated the resolutions on January 26 amidst a multitude of outside voices speaking out against them. One resolution concerning the issue “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water” was adopted, despite being widely seen as poorly-researched. The other, titled “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” was narrowly defeated.
The OSCE Minsk Group, which remains the only international body mandated to facilitate negotiations on the conflict, had issued a statement calling on PACE not to follow through with the voting that would undermine their mandate and cause complications. US House Intelligence Committee Ranking Democrat Adam Schiff and Senior Foreign Affairs Committee Member Brad Sherman also urged the US State Department to take action to defeat the “one-sided, inaccurate, and counterproductive” measure concerning escalation of violence.
Azerbaijan has long criticized OSCE as monopolistic in the negotiation process, as well as inefficient and even pro-Armenian, due to the Armenian diaspora presence in the countries which serve as co-chairs for the Minsk Group: France, Russia, and the US.
It thus comes as no surprise that Azerbaijan would push forward measures through PACE in order to undermine the Minsk Group, despite the former having no experience or stated mission in conflict resolution or settlement.
Pedro Argamunt
Furthermore, it now seems that Azeri authorities have Agramunt to act as their friend in high places to further counter the Minsk Group. Agramunt’s stance became clear two years ago while serving as PACE Rapporteur on Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan. Human rights defenders spoke out against his loyalty to Azerbaijani authorities as a clear conflict of interest.
It also comes as no surprise that on the same day of his election to PACE presidency, Agramunt raised the issue of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as a threat to the security of Europe.
Also during this Winter Session, Sahiba Gafarova became the first Azerbaijani MP to be elected as Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons.
While many international voices have spoken out about the bias of the resolutions, no one has yet spoken out about the bias of newly-elected Agramunt and Gafarova.
