ArmInfo. During the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in Turkey, the Armenian delegation once again encountered Azerbaijan's attempts to politicize this site. Vice-Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia, Vahe Enfiajyan, announced this at a press conference on September 23.
He noted that the Azerbaijani delegation during the PABSEC meeting in Baku raised issues related to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, the Artsakh Republic and others. Moreover, the Vice-Speaker noted that the Azerbaijani delegation often uses this platform to promote its political agenda, but the question, Unfortunately, it is not limited to this factor only.
"There are a number of countries in the PABSEC that also have territorial problems, including Georgia, Ukraine, and Moldova, which sometimes raise such issues themselves. And therefore, since raising these issues is based on their interests, they turn a blind eye to such statements by Azerbaijan," Enfiajyan emphasized.
"In turn, I also made a statement in which I noted that the PABSEC is an economic, not a political Assembly. Moreover, I stated that if a delegation does not participate in discussions, it is unacceptable to discuss issues concerning it. (Armenian delegation did not go to the last PABSEC meeting in Baku - Ed. note). As a result, we had a dispute and everything possible was done to prevent the Armenian delegation from expressing its point of view, but we stated that we would not ignore the attacks carried out against us, " Enfiajyan emphasized.
The Vice-Speaker noted that in his speech he spoke about the elections held in the NKR, emphasizing that they were held in accordance with all the norms of democracy. According to the MP, his statement caused dissatisfaction of the Azerbaijani delegation.
"Representatives of the Azerbaijani delegation said that" at present, 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan is under occupation. "To which I replied that Artsakh was never part of independent Azerbaijan. I also had to make a remark to the PABSEC Secretary General Asaf Hajiyev, who is Azerbaijani and tried to defend the interests of Baku. It is worth noting that no one except the Turkish delegation intervened. The Turkish delegation, in turn, did not hide that it supports the interests of Azerbaijan, "the Vice-Speaker emphasized.
It should be noted that on September 18 in the Turkish city of Giresun the 53rd meeting of the PABSEC Committee on Economic, Trade, Technological and Environmental Issues was held.