France, Strasbourg, 24 January / corr. Trend A. Maharramli/ Lord Russell Johnston, the head of the sub-committee on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will pay a visit Armenia and Azerbaijan in the first half of February.
"I am planning to visit Baku on 8 February, and later Armenia to observe the presidential election," Lord Johnston said Trend on 24 January.
The Sub-committee on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was established in spring of 2005 as a body exercising control over the implementation of the Resolution (Resolution 1416) of the organization on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
The agenda of the meetings have already been coordinated with the presidents and parliament chairmen of both countries. He is expected to hold meetings with the leaders of the political parties. Though the election period is not suitable to discuss the regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict I am planning to discuss these issues with the leaders of the both countries, he said.
Lord rejects the statements that the sub-committee was established to regulate Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. "We do not deal with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it is the OSCE Minsk group who tries to solve the conflict," Johnston said. Our task is to improve the relations between parliamentarians, especially to let them to hold negotiations instead of accusing each-other. I want to make sure that the leaders of both countries consider our work useful," Lord said.
Johnston's visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan was scheduled for November, but was postponed due to the non-agreement of the agenda between the parties.