Armenia has chosen the path of democracy and this is a fact. Whatever it means for any of us, but it is important for us that only our people can chose how to get out from the crisis in our country, said Tatevik Hayrapetyan, Parliament deputy, member of PACE Armenian delegation at PACE session.
“Now I want to get back to the issue of prisoners of war. And I want to literally bring to your attention the conversation which took place about a week ago between Ilham Aliyev and Erdogan’s wife - Emine khanum (Erdoğan).
So on their way to occupied Shushi she asks Mr. Aliyev: “Are there many Armenian prisoners of war in Baku?” And he happily answers: “Yes, yes, there are so many prisoners of war.” And she says laughing: “Oh, so good, so return them in small portions.” This is literally what they said. The video is in YouTube, you can see it.
And are these countries – Azerbaijan and Turkey members of Council of Europe? And their leaders behave like that. This not only contradicts the logics of international law, but this is also insane, inhuman. And every time we come here, the families of prisoners of war ask us what Europe is doing, what you are doing when you go there.
We say, they discuss it, they judge, they condemn, and as a result we have a “very little portions of prisoners of war.” And there are so many people, hundreds of people, and the families are suffering. It has been more than half a year the ceasefire statement was signed, and Armenia has done its part of the deal, it is Azerbaijan which refuses. And they say, you know, we returned 15 prisoners of war. Oh, thank you very much. But I want to remind you that it is your duty to immediately return all the prisoners of war, which you have to do according to the November 9 trilateral ceasefire statement.
And I want to say, that peace is not simply a beautiful word, we value peace more than anyone else in the world, because we how it is to be in a war, how it is lose the beloved ones. But peace means actions, peace means hard work. And Azerbaijani way of peace is to enter the sovereign territory of Armenia, is to keep Armenian prisoners of war as hostages, is to dehumanize Armenian people on state level, and then to come to this hemicycle and beautifully talk about peace.
Dear Azerbaijani colleagues, if you really want peace, go back to your home country and make your dictator Aliyev act in accordance of the international law, return the Armenian prisoners of war, and get out of Armenia’s sovereign territory. We do not want war; no one wants war. But if you want peace, you need to act. Thank you,” Hayrapetyan said.
