On April 18-22, at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to be held in Strasbourg, during the ongoing debates in the first half of the day of the plenary session on April 21, it is planned to discuss the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. On April 11, the thematic discussion in the draft agenda published on the PACE website was offered to hold by pretty impartial title: “The recent and tragic escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.” However, according to the new message posted on the website recently, two requests for the current affairs debate were received: “The recent and tragic escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” and “The tragic escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and the other occupied territories of Azerbaijan.”
It is known that Azerbaijan is trying to include the term of “Azerbaijan’s occupied territories” in various documents, to which essentially this proposal is aimed at. Aravot.am asked the member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Naira Zohrabyan, whether the discussion with such title is not worrisome and whether the mentioned proposal will be included in the PACE plenary session. Mrs. Zohrabyan informed that the Armenian delegation has also presented a request for current affairs debate, entitled “War crimes committed by Azerbaijan during the recent aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh.” On April 18, during the voting, most likely, a neutral title will be chosen that was presented by François Rochebloine.
Naira Zohrabyan noted that there is no need for concern as she is sure that the debate on the morning of April 21 will be organized with this neutral title. She also said that the current affairs debate does not envisage an approval of any resolution, simply the rapporteur presents the problem which is followed by the speeches of other deputies.
To our observation that given the PACE President Pedro Agramunt’s pro- Azerbaijani posture, what we can expect from these debates, Mrs. Zohrabyan replied, “The fact that the current PACE president is Aliyev’s press secretary, none of the deputies has doubt on it. He also knows well that he is Aliyev’s press spokesperson. I was feeling in the PACE as in Milli Mejlis in Baku. The facts suggests that Azerbaijan has committed military crimes, and if the international community does not intentionally want to turn a blind eye to all this, it is obvious that the PACE should recognize Azerbaijan as an aggressor country and state that it had violated the commitments assumed before the PACE with its membership on January 25, 2001, and admit that the aggressor Azerbaijan has no right to be a CE member and join us in recognizing Azerbaijan in international courts as a war criminal.”
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Naira Zohrabyan also mentioned that the PACE deputies should have been attentive to tough speeches of the deputies in the European Parliament, where they describe Azerbaijan as an aggressor and called to recognize Nagorno-Karabakh and declare that the military operations were launched by Azerbaijan. Mrs. Zohrabyan reminded that among the Council of Europe member states, at least Russia, Germany and France have the opportunity for the satellite intelligence, and it is clear that if they want to make sure who started the aggression, it is clear, they can put the satellite footages on the table and everything becomes clear. To our question of whether we should also expect such tough statements at the PACE plenary session like in the European Parliament, Mrs. Zohrabyan replied, yes.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
