K. Nahapetyan: Europeans took off headphones due to Azerbaijanis’ hysteria

The Armenian delegation’s participation in the recent NATO PA Rose Roth seminar in Baku was extremely important, the head of the Armenian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly Koryun Nahapetyan said at the press conference today when giving details of the seminar held in Baku.

“If we had not participated, a vacuum would have formed at the seminar, and Azerbaijanis would have taken the opportunity and misrepresented the regional developments, distorting the facts and reality,” he noted.

In his words, the Baku seminar took place against a background of anti-Armenian propaganda by Azerbaijanis.

“We not only countered this, but also represented the Armenian side’s position on all the issues. The Azerbaijani side did not respond to our observations. Instead, an attempt was made to aggravate the situation by means of accusations against the Armenian state and some figures and destructive approaches,” Nahapetyan said, adding that unfortunately, not all mass media outlets published true information, sometimes reporting fabrication of the Azerbaijani press.

According to Nahapetyan, Nagorno Karabakh and the Karabakh conflict were constantly discussed at the seminar, and Azerbaijanis spoke about the ‘occupation’ during all discussions. Yet the Armenian delegation insisted that Azerbaijan is the occupant by mentioning Getashen and other facts.

“We also proposed that Azerbaijan should sit down to talks with the Nagorno Karabakh Republic. It is the only path if they want to achieve a lasting peace in the region… But the Azerbaijani delegates constantly spoke about the ‘occupation’ and so on, which tired our European colleagues as well. In some cases our European colleagues even took off their headphones as they got tired with Azerbaijanis’ statements,” the head of the Armenian delegation to the NATO PA said.

Member of the Armenian delegation to the NATO PA, Armenian parliamentary deputy Tevan Poghosyan said for his part that when he visited Azerbaijan in 2011, everything was terribly closed there, while this time the Azerbaijani side tried to create an impression of freedom – the Armenian delegates allegedly could move freely. “But wherever we went, there would be nobody there – in a cafe or some other place,” Poghosyan said.

Another participant of the seminar, Director of Regional Studies Center Richard Giragosian said Armenia was much more interested in the event and that the Armenian delegation in the person of K. Nahapetyan and T. Poghosyan showed that the Karabakh conflict is an issue of national interests and domestic political problems are not important here. This issue is a priority in any circumstances.