At the winter plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE), referring to the challenges facing the organization, PACE President Pedro Agramunt mentioned in his remarks also the four-day war in April. In particular, he stated, “Clashes took place in Karabakh-Azerbaijani border in April 2016. This is a challenge which we have not solved until now. The Assembly and I are convinced that the conflict cannot be resolved by military means, and our role as a parliamentary assembly is important. Our Assembly must be able to use the opportunities attributed thereto.”
In this context, Pedro Agramunt expressed concern that the Russian delegation is not involved in the works of the Assembly for two years, “If one of our member states is not present in the Assembly, it is already a serious problem.” Speaking about his attitude, the PACE President assured that he will continue his work to be able to “come out of the impasse.” Pedro Agramunt also considered the imprisonment of civil society activists and politicians engaged in human rights defense and parliamentarians in Turkey and Azerbaijan a challenge. A proposal was submitted to the Assembly to hastily consider the activities of the democratic institutions in Turkey and the situation in Turkey
During the voting, the 2/3 was not provided, hence the vote was canceled and the debate was postponed. Note that the PACE winter session agenda includes debates on attacks against journalists, and the freedom of mass media in Europe, online media and journalism: challenges and accountability, ending cyber discrimination and online hate. Urgent procedure debate will be held on the situation in Syria and its effects upon surrounding countries. The Assembly will host Mr. Nicos Anastasiades, President of Cyprus, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, President of Romania, and Mr. Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
