At the winter plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) when Ukrainian delegate Volodymyr Ariyev’s report “Attack on Journalists and Free Speech in Media in Europe” was passed with 100 votes “pro” and 15 “cons”, it was followed by Ariyev’s post on his Facebook page that his statement that allegedly the members of the Armenian delegation to PACE have tried to offer him a bribe by giving him an Armenian cognac in order that he would not recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as a part of Azerbaijan in his report has been translated wrongly. Today, at the EPP faction session, a member the Armenian delegation to PACE, Samvel Farmanyan, called the attention of the EPP party members and the EPP president to the disinformation spread by the Ukrainian delegate.
Aravot.am asked Mr. Farmanyan why Ariyev is trying to switch the issue to a personal level, Mr. Farmanyan replied, “Ariyev trying to dispel suspicions in every possible way that he was a lobbyist. None of the main Ukrainian delegation says anything positive about him.” Samvel Farmanyan noticed that Ariyev’s attempt to refute his words was unsuccessful. Later, Mr. Farmanyan told that anyway there was an Armenian cognac on the dinner table in Strasbourg. The day before the discussion of the report, in the evening, German EPP Chairperson Axel Fischer initiated to organize a supper with the attendance of Armenian delegates Samvel Farmanyan, Naira Karapetyan, head of the Azerbaijani delegation Vusal Hüseynov and author of the report Volodymyr Ariyev. According to Samvel Farmanyan, the supper lasted over 3 hours in a constructive atmosphere, and they parties tried to arrive at an agreement. There was an Armenian cognac on the table along the French wine and German beer.
