“The Azerbaijani delegation generally did not speak directly about the issues related to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, except for the slight hint about the “displaced people”, said a member of the Armenian delegation, MP of the “Yelq” faction, Ararat Mirzoyan at the end of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s autumn session in Andorra.
As we have already informed, the autumn session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly was held in Andorra on October 3-6.
On the last day, during the discussion of “Education as a guarantee of stability and development”, when Ararat Mirzoyan touched upon the education system in Azerbaijan, according to him, the Azerbaijani delegation reacted strongly.
We inquired what emphasis he had made, and Mr. Mirzoyan noted that he had stressed the importance of the role of education in establishing dialogue, tolerance, harmonious coexistence, but the opportunities of the education system in Azerbaijan serve to the opposite goal, propaganda of hatred against Armenians, xenophobia and hostility.
Ararat Mirzoyan brought examples from Azerbaijani educational manuals and a script of a children’s theatre, cited several international reports, where those facts have been clearly recorded, for example, the reports of the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance: “I urged the Azerbaijani parliamentarians to end the institutionalized demonization and engage in peacebuilding”.
Azerbaijani delegates did not leave this speech unanswered. Ararat Mirzoyan presented what had happened in the session hall: “My speech sparked the Azerbaijani delegation’s fierce response not appropriate to the discussions at the Assembly. Since I could not make a speech again, Karen Bekaryan, a member of our delegation, had to bring new examples of Azerbaijani propaganda in his speech and assert that the phenomena I mentioned were well-documented and published”.
Then Azerbaijanis tried to register a new speech, and the presidency eventually gave them one minute. Ararat Mirzoyan continued: “During that minute, the head of their delegation found it necessary to urge “not to defame their president”.
According to Ararat Mirzoyan, at the end the head of the Armenian delegation, Hermine Naghdalyan, also spoke and noted that the speech of the Armenian delegate was a step towards achieving peace by discussing the issue through dialogue, and that our delegation would continue to discuss all the issues for that purpose and with the same approach.
In response to our question, whether during the plenary session or during the discussions beyond the sessions, he had talked about the latest ceasefire violations by Azerbaijan, particularly about the fact that even during the OSCE monitoring the Azerbaijani side had fired shots, Mr. Mirzoyan said, “No, since I had already made pretty sharp critical remarks”.
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
