UAAS asks Swedish MEP for explanation over statement on Karabakh

PanARMENIAN.Net - Union of Armenian Associations in Sweden (UAAS) addressed a letter to MEP Anna Ibrisagic of Sweden, requesting explanations over her statement on the Nagorno Karabakh issue.

“In a news article (27 October 2011) published on the Azeri news site News.az (www.news.az/articles/47679) Ibrisagic is asserted to have said that “As a very strong state, Azerbaijan is capable to regain its own territories”.

The Union of Armenian Associations in Sweden contacted her on two occasions to get a clarification regarding the quote: via email on October 28 and via her home page on November 4. She received a short question about whether she could confirm the authenticity of the quote and in case the statement could be interpreted in any other way than intimation of Azerbaijan’s use of military power to solve the Karabakh conflict. Ibrisagic has yet (14 November 2011) neither denied nor explained the tenor of her alleged statement.

The Union of the Armenian Associations in Sweden considers her statement and its possible intimation for being a matter of serious concern, especially in regard to the recent Azeri military build up and in spite of the intensified efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group for finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. Earlier, the former Moderate member of the Swedish Parliament, Goran Lindblad, has made similar statements, openly advocating Azeri interests in the conflict. He has done this despite the fact that he, as the PACE co-rapporteur on Armenia, was expected to at least hold an objective stand in similar issues. Lindblad has recently been identified by Azeri media as a lobbyist for Azerbaijan and its fields of interests, among others the Karabakh issue (www.news.az/articles/29645), which again confirms his ineligibility as an impartial rapporteur on Armenia.

Ever since the creation of the OSCE Minsk Group in 1994, with mandate to solve the conflict in a peaceful manner, Sweden has been one of the ten state members of the group. Thus, it is utterly regrettable and alarming that members of a leading Swedish political party, the Moderates, deviate in such a flagrant manner from the Minsk Group’s strive for a balanced and objective approach to the problem. War rhetoric and one-sided lobbying is hardly consistent with the purpose of the Minsk Group or its goal for reaching a near, viable, and peaceful solution to the Karabakh conflict,” the Union’s letter runs.