Recently the opposition press has offered the idea that the decision of PACE not to deprive Armenia of its voting rights in the organization is somehow linked to concessions made, or to be made, by the Armenian authorities in the Karabakh conflict settlement process. Today, at the National Press Club, Hovhannes Igityan, former head of Armenia's PACE delegation, stated that while he couldn't directly connect the two issues, naturally, the Karabakh issue is linked to the problems of democracy in Armenia. "When Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev are sitting down we have one president that faces ethics problems in his country and a president of Azerbaijan that claims to have garnered 85% of the popular vote and that no political prisoners have resulted during my elections," stated Mr. Igityan. In his view, we have internationalized the Karabakh issue and offered the West the possibility to resolve that question and it is natural that we must now show the West that Armenia meets its standards. He went on to say that in this context it is possible to see a connection, "but as some type of tit for tat trade, where Europe says we will strip you of your voting rights because of the Karabakh issue...I don't see the link."