Armenia considers a declaration adopted by the Black Sea Economic Cooperation to be anti-Armenian

A declaration dedicated to the 25^th anniversary of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation has been adopted in Kiev where a session of its Parliamentary Assembly is being held. Out of 12 national delegations 9 voted in favor of adopting the declaration. The Armenian delegation boycotted the vote, believing that the document contains anti-Armenian text.

Gevorg Gorgisyan, an MP and member of the Armenian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) said that the declaration included only one principle of settling regional conflicts, territorial integrity, while international law consists of three basic principles: the inadmissibility of the use of force, territorial integrity and the peoples right of people to self-determination, all of which are inseparable.

“The principle of territorial integrity is only one of the ten provisions of the Helsinki Final Act. It is unacceptable to refer to only one of the 10 provisions, otherwise the content of the Helsinki Final Act is distorted,” Gevorg Gorgisyan stated.

The Armenian delegation noted that this provision of the declaration was developed before the meeting began, without the Armenian delegation’s participation, and appeared on the agenda at the last moment.

Gorgisyan said that the Serbian delegation was also against the vote and did not participate in the development of the provision either. Russia, the 12^th member of the organization, could have supported Armenia in this matter, but did not participate in the meeting due to tense relations with Ukraine.

“The states that have territorial issues with Russia insisted upon the inclusion of this provision in the declaration. They secretly gathered to discuss this issue, placed the provision in the declaration and then put it to a vote,” the MP said.

Vage Anfijyan, another member of the Armenian delegation said that this declaration will not have legal consequences regarding the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as it was adopted by the platform of an inter-parliamentary cooperation.

“This is an undesirable development. In any case, we are working, holding serious discussions, and have expressed our dissatisfaction with the fact that the assembly has shown a treacherous and prejudiced attitude towards Armenia,” Anfiyan said.