That Very Person shouldn’t Head PACE, he may be Leading any Dictatorial Structure: Edmon Marukyan on PACE President’s Call

“I condemn the statement issued by the PACE president, both in name of the party and me,” Edmon Marukyan, NA MP, Head of “Bright Armenia” party, told 168.am.

Note, Pedro Agramunt, PACE president, called for the withdrawal of Armenian armed troops  “from occupied Azerbaijani territories.”

-How do you assess call of PACE president, and according to you, what implication it may have on tense and large-scale actions and situation on Nagorno Karabakh—Azerbaijan Line of Contact?

-Council of Europe is the organ based on values of human rights, democracy and rule of law, and head of that Parliamentary Assembly shouldn’t make such a unilateral statement, and implementing it under these conditions, means supporting one of the sides, supporting Azerbaijani authorities, which at the moment are implementing intense military actions.

That is, their actions within international criminal law is called military actions, accordingly, he supports authorities implementing military actions and I’d advise him, as a PACE president, release statements and demand freeing of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, suspension of violation of human rights, free human right advocates, restoration of freedom of speech and etc.

However, he supports fighting criminals, and accordingly, he’s also an accomplice to what is currently going on in Azerbaijan and in the territory of NKR at the moment. We know that a wide-scale attack on peaceful settlements has been recorded, which is a war crime. I don’t consider any international reflection will be found, as everybody knows that the incumbent president of PACE doesn’t represent any weight, and with this statement he also shows that he himself doesn’t present any value.

-What do you condition appearing with a likewise statement by?

-I condition this by his close ties with Azerbaijani authorities. Everybody knows it; the Armenian delegation and others have repeatedly mentioned this while he was being elected a president, we also touched upon it a lot. He discredits the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and he doesn’t act out of values upon which the Council of Europe is anchored.

-In your opinion, what should the Armenian party do not to edify such statements?

-The Armenian party implements work on diplomatic level, however regarding likewise officials there simply should be official statements that he/she doesn’t correspond to his/her position. For the time being, I say that he isn’t the one to hold his position, this very person shouldn’t head PACE, he may be head of any dictatorial structure, which has nothing to do with rule of law and democracy.

By Ani Keshishyan