PACE president hints optimism for settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Jean-Claude Mignon (L) and Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek. AA photo

The president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Jean-Claude Mignon, indicated his optimism in settling the Nagonro-Karabakh dispute, an issue that has disrupted the relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan for decades, through the term presidencies of the involved countries.
 
At a meeting with Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek in Ankara, Mignon recalled on May 13 that Armenia will begin to chair the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in a few days.

“This is a term presidency for six months. Right after that Austria’s and then Azerbaijan’s term presidency will come. It must be seen as an absolute opportunity. It must be seen as an opportunity to bring a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh issue together with great countries in the region, of course primarily with Turkey,” Mignon was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
 
Çiçek, meanwhile, reiterated Ankara’s criticism on PACE’s referral to the militants of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as “activists”, as opposed to “terrorists”.

“We expressed discomfort and disappointment due to referring to the members of an organization as activists that were accepted as terrorists by the EU and the UN, in an organization we participate as an active member.”