PACE bears responsibility for humanitarian crisis in  Nagorno-Karabakh, says Assembly Rapporteur on Azerbaijan

ArmInfo. "The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe bears responsibility for the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno- Karabakh, because our goal is the  protection of human rights," PACE Monitoring Committee rapporteur on  Azerbaijan, Norwegian MP Liz Kristoffersen, told ArmInfo correspondent.

She recalled that in December last year, the PACE co-rapporteurs on  Azerbaijan and Armenia addressed the situation in the Lachin corridor  in a joint statement. "We called on the authorities to open the  Lachin corridor, the same call was made by the Committee of Ministers  of the Council of Europe, the EU, the OSCE. My government in Norway  is also urging the authorities to open the corridor," she said.

Speaking about her trip to Azerbaijan planned for the spring of this  year to study the situation, as well as the fact that the Baku  authorities do not let international observers into the  conflict-affected territory for an objective assessment of the  situation, Kristoffersen noted that in this case she would have to  rely on several sources, including the OSCE, the Red Cross, Amnesty  International and the Helsinki Committee. "Also, I can request  information from the Norwegian government, the EU is working on this  issue. There are several possibilities to collect information, and  not only depend on what we can see on the ground," she said.

It should be noted that Liz Kristoffersen was previously recommended  for the post of rapporteur on Azerbaijan, which is also mentioned in  the notorious report of the European Stability Institute (ESI), which  investigated allegations of corruption within PACE. The report notes  that Kristoffersen's candidacy for the post of rapporteur on  Azerbaijan in 2009 was blocked by Azerbaijani supporters. Then the  supporters managed to appoint "their own man" to this post, who  became Debono Grech .