An incident took place at the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) between Azerbaijani delegation member to PACE, Rafael Huseynov, and the members of the Armenian delegation. Rafael Huseynov announced thru the PACE microphone that allegedly the former head of Armenia’s Helsinki Association, human rights activist Mikael Danielyan was killed by the hands of RA authorities for freedom. The Azerbaijani delegate announced that “Serzh Sargsyan’s hands are in the blood, and the few journalists who are speaking freely, they are eliminated.”
Naira Karapetyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, briefly countered Huseynov, and then spoke about the PACE being corrupt, citing to the former EPP President Luca Volontè’s question that in 2012-2014, he was accused by the Milan prosecutor’s office of carrying out political activities in favor of Azerbaijan. The PACE President Pedro Agramunt interrupted the Armenian delegate reasoning that she has no right to speak about the case under trial. This incident was followed by the speech of the member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Naira Zohrabyan, during which Mrs. Zohrabyan announced that she recommends Rafael Huseynov to see a psychiatrist. PACE President Pedro Agramunt reacted to this, “I invite you to order, do not use insulting words in the PACE.”
Mrs. Zohrabyan continued the speech. Agramunt has said, “You can continue but please, do not use insulting words.” And then disconnected her microphone, saying that you have no right to say such things and you are deprived of your speech. Mrs. Zohrabyan, you also have no right to interrupt me as you are also a lobbyist corrupted by Azerbaijan, and therefore it is not beneficial for you to hear from the tribune about another politician corrupted by Azerbaijan. This dispute was interrupted by Mikael Melkumyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, stating that Agramunt has no right to silence an independent lawmaker.
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
