During the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), during a question-and-answer session with the Latvian Foreign Minister, Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe Krišjānis Kariņš, speakers of three of the five political groups of the Council of Europe asked the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council questions regarding the forced deportation of Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Max Lucks, the spokesperson of the group of socialists, stating that Azerbaijan forcibly displaced 120 thousand Armenians by using military force, violating international law, asked if you don’t think we should stop the gas contracts with that country.
Krišjānis Kariņš said that the CE serves as a platform for political dialogue, and the problems should be solved through political dialogue. He also informed that the CE Human Rights Commissioner will go to Nagorno Karabakh, and the representative of the CE Secretary General will visit Armenia.
The speaker of the EPP political group, member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, Vladimir Vardanyan, asked what the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe is going to do to put an end to the continuous policy of non-implementation of ECHR decisions by the member states, as well as the non-implementation of interim measures. The Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Ministers said that this is a severe problem for the Council of Ministers, and they will resort to even harsh measures.
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Fiona O’loughlin, the Rapporteur of the ALDE group, asked what the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe plans to do to solve the problems of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. The chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the CE answered: “I think that the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians is one of the most important issues today. It is important to understand what to do about this issue. One hundred twenty thousand ethnic Armenians left their place of birth and were displaced. It is necessary to understand whether they are migrants or refugees. We have to solve these issues.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
