During the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Samad Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE, presented a report during the discussion on “The challenge of right-wing extremist ideology to democracy and human rights in Europe.”
In his speech, Armen Gevorgyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, considered it strange that the representative of Azerbaijan presented a report on human rights and democratic governance. “This report presents a member of the ruling party of a country that has done complete ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabakh. Right-wing extremist ideologies are mainly composed of nationalist, xenophobic, militant, and authoritarian sentiments. All this has been present in Azerbaijan for decades.”
Arusyak Julhakyan, a member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, said: “Honestly, I’m a little confused to see that the speaker on the subject of xenophobia and authoritarianism is representing a country known for its xenophobia and authoritarianism and a country that recently ethnically cleansed an entire population of Armenians living in their ancestral homeland”.
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Arusyak Julhakyan noticed that the report presents examples of different countries, but nothing is said about Azerbaijan. According to the deputy, this may refer to the latest report of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in Azerbaijan, which states: “The committee is deeply concerned about the incitement of racial hatred and the spread of racial stereotypes against persons of Armenian national or ethnic origin. We must stand together against extremism, hatred, and intolerance.”
On this occasion, during the plenary session, delegates from other PACE nations also expressed their concern. In his speech, ALDE group speaker Bertrand Buyout referred to the forced deportation of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and noted: “The report rightly points out, and I quote, that “extreme right-wing ideologies include and promote xenophobic, racist and Nazi visions, including other forms of intolerance or assertion of religious or other beliefs. About 120,000 Armenians had to leave their homeland because they were, so to speak, of the wrong ethnicity, and this was in the territory of Europe. German delegate Max Lucks stated that we are dealing with a serious challenge to democracy.
“Right-wing extremism is dangerous because it has particular and very threatening consequences. The genocide committed against the Armenians in 1915 also shows the horror of right-wing extremism. Instead of demanding the remembrance and condemnation of this genocide, we, as the Council of Europe, as Europeans, could not even prevent the deportation of 100,000 Armenians under military force, which was used by the brutal dictator Ilham Aliyev. This is a shame for Europe. Fighting right-wing extremism also means opposing ethnic cleansing on our continent.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
