Agramunt Supported Aliyev’s Regime: Naira Zohrabyan at PACE

Spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) has been launched today, the agenda of which should include the issue of escalation on Nagorno Karabakh—Azerbaijan Line of Contact. PACE press service informed that on the first day of the spring session—April 18, discussions are planned to hold on “Last and tragic tension of Karabakh conflict”, however, the issue wasn’t discussed, as PACE Political Bureau decided not to separately touch upon the situation on NK conflict zone.

However, PACE discussions didn’t bypass the four-day war on NK conflict zone today, which was reflected by Ioanetta Kavvadia (Greece), the main speaker. She stated that fight against terror should be implemented, wherever it may occur, and PACE supports peaceful settlement of the conflict.

She also cited statement by Pedro Agramunt, in which the latter called on the sides to weaken tension on NK conflict zone.

In reply to Kavvadia, Naira Zohrabyan, RA NA MP, expressed her concern. She addressed harsh criticism to PACE President Pedro Agramunt for his support of the Azerbaijani aggressive policy. Naira Zohrabyan reminded all members of the PACE plenary session that Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno Karabakh and committed war crimes.

“Agramunt supported Aliyev’s regime, meanwhile the Council of Europe must respect the rights of Europe’s citizens, and the PACE President must be serious and must not defend obvious authoritarianism and war crimes.”

“Azerbaijan clearly targeted civilians and bombarded civilian settlement. They bombarded schools, killed peaceful civilians, cut off their ears, mutilated the corpses of Armenian soldiers, decapitated their heads and put it on display to peaceful civilians”, Zohrabyan said.

She said the fact that PACE President expressed his support to Azerbaijan’s authoritarian and aggressive policy is unacceptable. “It is known that the active PACE President is also Aliyev’s speaker, he was in Azerbaijan and expressed support to Aliyev’s regime.

Note, reminding, that Armenia and Azerbaijan, by joining PACE in 2001, were obliged to apply only peaceful measures regarding Nagorno Karabakh, Agramunt called on the governments of the two refrain from the violence. Agramunt also welcomed “Unilateral ceasefire announced by Azerbaijan.”

By Araks Martirosyan