During the plenary meeting of the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), tough discussions took place surrounding the report “Humanitarian Consequences of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict” written by PACE Rapporteur on Migration, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, Paul Gavan.
A discussion on “The Consequences of the Humanitarian Problems of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Conflict” was held at PACE, which was followed by the adoption of a resolution of the same name. It is fixed in the resolution, “One of the biggest problems after the war is finding the location of soldiers’ remains and organizing their return.
The war partially took place due to snow in heavily mined areas, which makes it difficult to return the remains of the missing. So far, 243 Armenians and 7 Azeris are considered missing. With the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the bodies of 1,651 Armenians were returned, and the bodies of 395 Azerbaijanis were returned to Armenia. Finding the missing should not be politicized.” The rapporteur noted, “The Assembly proposes to the Committee of Ministers to reverse the European Court of Human Rights’ notification to the Committee of Ministers of 16 March 2021 concerning Armenian prisoners of war and to assist in resolving this ongoing issue. The ECHR notified the Committee of Ministers of 188 Armenian prisoners of war. I am deeply concerned about the fate of these people who were taken captive in Azerbaijan, but there has been no mention of these people for almost a year since the end of the conflict.”
Paul Gavan expressed concern from the PACE podium that he was unable to visit Artsakh. He was in Armenia in May and in Azerbaijan in July. Paul Gavan assured that he tried to avoid politics, focusing only on humanitarian issues. He stated that Azerbaijan should immediately return the Armenian prisoners of war, and Armenia should provide Azerbaijan with maps of the minefields. According to the rapporteur, in order to avoid border tensions, there may be “demarcation, maybe some way of creating a buffer zone” at the border. The presentation of the report was followed by speeches, many of which criticized Azerbaijan.
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Greek delegate Alexandros Triantaphyllides uttered the phrase “Republic of Artsakh” from the PACE podium, reminding that September 27 marks one year since Azerbaijan invaded Nagorno Karabakh. Azerbaijani delegate Erkin Gadirli was outraged by this statement, claiming that such expressions are legally wrong. There were also concerns that displaced Armenians could not return to their homes as they would face security concerns under Azerbaijani control. As always, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, Samad Seidov, stated that his country had been occupied by Armenia for 30 years, and that they had finally liberated their sacred land. He stated that Nagorno Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan and said, “Some Armenians came to us a few days ago from Khankendi (Stepanakert) and asked for a job, a normal life. We will do everything to ensure that because they are citizens of Azerbaijan. But all those who are not so happy for peace dream of a new war and revenge. They try to exaggerate the situation. That is why I ask my colleagues not to give in to provocations and vote for the changes proposed by Azerbaijan to avoid causing a new war. We are not afraid of war. We are ready to do everything to defend our territories. We must understand that this is a historic chance for Armenia to follow the path of peace, not war.”
The PACE rapporteur responded to Samad Seidov. Paul Gavan announced, “I saw the military cemetery in Yerevan, the graves of all the young people who were the same age as my eldest son, 18 years old. I saw their relatives crying. I am sure they could have shown me the same in Azerbaijan. Therefore, with all due respect, when Samad Seidov says that they is not afraid of war, I want to say that I think each of us in this Assembly should be afraid of war when we see what the consequences may be.” The head of the Armenian delegation to PACE Ruben Rubinyan responded to this statement by Samad Seidov.
Opposing the change he proposed in the report, which suggested adding in the document that the negotiations did not yield any tangible results, Ruben Rubinyan said. “This is a historic day. For the first time in history, this Assembly is threatened with war, as Samad Seidov did. And he wants to make that fixation in the resolution in order to justify their attack by saying that the talks did not yield tangible results, so that is why a war took place.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
