On January 26, Armen Gevorgyan, member of the RA delegation to the PACE and main rapporteur on PACE local and regional authorities, gave a speech during the discussion on the topic “Progress of the Assembly’s monitoring procedure (January-December 2022)”.
“Madam President,
The government of Azerbaijan, as well as its representatives in this Assembly, want us to forget about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. They don’t want you to use the name of this unrecognized state; they don’t want you to talk about the human casualties of its aggression during the 2020 44-day war. Moreover, Azerbaijan has occupied the sovereign territories of Armenia since May 2021, launched new three-day intensive military operations in the south of Armenia last September, and since then has refused to leave our lands, even built fortifications.
Today we are witnessing a severe humanitarian crisis in Nagorno Karabakh. The Azerbaijani government has launched a 46-day siege in Nagorno-Karabakh, depriving its people of the right to live in dignity, to move freely, and to import food, medicine, and other essential goods.
This is not just a human rights issue but a manifestation of Azerbaijan’s state policy of ethnic cleansing.
Europe should continue to focus on Nagorno Karabakh. Strangely, the decision to send a PACE monitoring mission to the region for fact-finding purposes has yet to be implemented. What is this: Indifference or disruption to our organization?
In the “Economist” democracy index, Azerbaijan is characterized as an authoritarian state. The same family has ruled it for more than 40 years. It has launched three wars against the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh in the last 30 years, killing thousands of people and destroying the cultural and religious heritage of the Armenian people. Today, it terrorizes Armenians through the siege of the Lachine Corridor. Considering the authoritarian and terrorist nature of Azerbaijan, is it possible to imagine Nagorno Karabakh as part of it?
Azerbaijan has manipulated public opinion in our organization for years, which they cannot do now in the European Parliament, the UN Security Council, or the OSCE. We must consider why this is so.
I also want to draw the attention of this Assembly to the fact that since the end of 2022, Azerbaijan has started the process of abolishing the self-governing status of the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic. This is a clear violation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government that must be prevented. It is also time for this Assembly to seriously consider the issue of not recognizing the credentials of delegations whose governments are engaged in the use of cross-border force or other severe and regular human rights violations, be it in their territory or abroad,” said Armen Gevorgyan.
