Member of the Prosperous Armenia faction of the National Assembly, member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE Mikael Melkumyan addressed the PACE winter session in Strasbourg.
"Dear colleagues, at present one of the member states of our Assembly is constantly violating its statutory rights, and it has been doing so since the first day of joining the organization. That member country is Azerbaijan. According to the charter of our organization, "the aim of the Council of Europe is to establish a close union between its members in order to preserve and promote the ideals and principles which are their common heritage". In that case, what could be a greater obstacle to the unity of the members of the Council of Europe than war?
When Azerbaijan became a member of the Council of Europe, it undertook an additional commitment to the exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Moreover, the Assembly insisted that the commitment be recorded on paper. However, this Assembly reacted very weakly to the terrible war unleashed by Azerbaijan against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is obvious that this was not the only serious violation of Azerbaijan's commitments.
The member state of the Council of Europe, Azerbaijan, is carrying out military aggression against another member state of the Council of Europe, Armenia. There are thousands of victims, disabled and hundreds of prisoners of war as a result of the military aggression, despite the fact that the trilateral statement between the Republic of Armenia-the Russian Federation- Azerbaijan clearly states that the captives must be returned on a "all-for-all" basis.
In fact, this issue has not been resolved, our compatriots have been taken hostage in Azerbaijan. And now a question for you, what did the Council of Europe do, Europe do, can you tell me? And then, if such atrocities took place, say, between two or three European countries, how would you react?
Can you explain what kept you so cold and far away? European laws, rules, customs, traditions, what? In other words, either Europe does not want to stop these murders or it is incapable. Europe must change. As we adopt this resolution and, consequently, make changes in our regulations, we must discuss the issue of launching a joint procedure against Azerbaijan", Melkumyan said in particular.
