BY BAHRAM BATIYEV

Voting in PACE on the reports prepared by British MP Robert Walter 'Escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan,' held on January 26 revealed some unpleasant circumstances for Azerbaijan. One of them lies in belonging of deputees voting against teh document to one or another country.

As you know, 66 deputees voted for the resolution, 70 voted against, 45 abstained. Deafening result, we can say. Especially surprising was the voting of the Turkish delegation, support of which we always had the right to expect. So, in the hall there were 12 deputies from Turkey. 11 of them voted for the resolution. And what about the 12th? He, oddly enough, abstained. (http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/Votes/DB-VotesResults-EN.asp?VoteID=35783&DocID=15681&MemberID=).

Abstaining deputee is the representative of the oldest political organisation of the Republic of Turkey - the Republican People's Party (CHP) Ilhan Kesici.

This now opposition party, as it is known, takes centre-left and Kemalist position. All the more surprising is the decision of Kesici to abstain from voting on such an important document for Azerbaijan. And this at a time when even a Turkish MP of Armenian ethnicity, Markar Yesayan supported Walter's report.

Azeri Daily was able to ask Kesici himself about what caused his position in relation to our country. However, his response unspeakably surprised us: PACE member from Turkey said that the counting of votes in PACE was unfortunately falsified.

'Being perfectly aware of the importance of this document for Azerbaijan, naturally, I voted in favour of adoption of Walter's report. Imagine my surprise and anger when I learned that my vote was not taken into account. Surprised was not only me but the whole Turkish delegation, but we learned about it only yesterday morning.

Immediately at 10 a.m. French time, our delegation officially appealed to the leadership of the PACE with a request to amend the voting results given my vote for the adoption of the report.

They promised to fix this annoying bug. Azerbaijan and Turkey are the fraternal states, and I could not abstain from voting on such an important document,' says the Turkish MP.

However, despite the statement of the Turkish delegation to PACE made yesterday, changes in the results of the vote have not yet been made.