Chairman of PACE Subcommittee on Karabakh unaware of Karabakh conflict’s real essence

February 24, 2011 - 17:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The newly appointed Chairman of PACE subcommittee on Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr. Jordi Xucla i Costa says he plans to be an impartial and professional mediator in Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

A law professor at a local university, he claims that there are other MPs in the PACE, who perhaps are better aware of the region, but they have been accused of displaying a biased approach to either Armenia or Azerbaijan.

Therefore Mr. Xucla i Costa claims his appointment aims to eliminate any such accusations as far as he doesn’t represent any interest group in this particular issue. “I have the experience, but I don’t have any interest in [any] of the two parties. And this is one of the reasons behind my election as the chairman of this subcommittee”, Mr. Xucla i Costa said in an interview with PanARMENIAN.Net

Mr. Xucla i Costa said that the renewed agenda of the ad hoc committee is to prepare "draft conclusions" of its annual work at the end of the year.

Asked whether the “draft conclusions” are to serve as a basis for another PACE resolution on Nagorno Karabakh, Mr. Xucla i Costa underlined that Nagorno Karabakh conflict is a “dispute between two countries.”

“This is a dispute between two parties, no more … [a conflict] around Nagorno Karabakh, which is not an independent actor in the process, it is a part of the conflict," said Xucla i Costa.

Answering a question whether he meant that it is a conflict between two subjects of the international law around a territory, i.e. a territorial conflict, he said: “Exactly”.