ARMENIA GAVE ITS PABSEC CHAIRMANSHIP TO AZERBAIJAN

30.11.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. Today the 16th plenary session of the General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) has finished its work in Yerevan.
As the correspondent of Mediamax reports from the parliament, according to PABSEC regulations the term of Armenia’s 6-month chairmanship in this inter-parliamentary organization has expired. By alphabetic rotation principle the Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Armen Khachatrian gives his PABSEC chairman’s power to the head of Azerbaijan’s Milli-Majlis Murtuz Aleskerov for the nearest 6 months. Aleskerov himself hasn’t arrived in Yerevan, and the presidential regalia – a hammer with its stand – were handed to the vice-speaker of Azerbaijan’s parliament Arif Ragifzade. The next 17th plenary session of the General Assembly of PABSEC will be held on June 20-22, 2001 in Baku.
Parliamentarians from PABSEC 11 member-states took part in the work of the Yerevan plenary session, including Azerbaijan and Turkey, with whom Armenia still has no diplomatic relations.
PABSEC was founded in 1993 as a parliamentary unit of Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization. PABSEC decrees bear advisory rather than obligatory character.-0-