YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan is doing everything to damage the efforts of Co-chairs and the Minsk group format, in the framework of which is intended to reach to the peaceful settlement of Nagorno-Karabagh conflict. According to “Armenpress”, during the annual press conference summarizing the activities in 2015, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian answered to the question of one of the reporters. In his words the announcement of Minsk group co-chairs was not a surprise for the PACE delegates, as well as for Azerbaijan. “I think that it couldn’t be a surprise for Azerbaijan, the thing is that the country is disappointed that the position refers to them. Who tries to move the issue out of the Minsk group format? Of course, it’s Azerbaijan. As to Armenia, we have repeatedly said the same thing as the co-chairs. Our opinions coincide over this issue,. “, Edward Nalbandian said.

He stressed the fact, that the PACE delegates voted for the peaceful solution of the conflict and didn’t allow the report to pass.

Referring to the report on the Sarsang reservoir, the Minister noticed that it is illogical, that the author of the report didn’t visit Nagorno-Karabagh despite the numerous invitations.  Advising not to exaggerate the meaning of such documents, he noticed that the Azerbaijani and not the Armenian top officials had mentioned that the PACE resolutions are just pieces of paper.

In his remarks, Azerbaijan, noticing that he can’t pass his unilateral approaches around the negotiation table, tries to find consolation using other formats and is against of both OSCE and PACE.

On January 26, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) rejected the report prepared by British parliamentarian Robert Walter (he is no longer PACE member-edit.)  “Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan". 66 MPs voted in favor and 70 MPs against the report.

At the same time, the PACE adopted rapporteur Milica Marković’s (Bosnia and Herzegovina) draft resolution on “Inhabitants of frontier regions of Azerbaijan are deliberately deprived of water” after making some changes and revisions to the draft. 98 MPs voted for, 71 – against. 40 MPs abstained. Minsk Group co-chairs had called on other European institutions not to try to transfer the negotiation format into other platforms.