Council of Europe must use its instruments of pressure against Armenia, member of the Azerbaijani delegation to Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Ganira Pashayeva, said on September 29 answering Chairman of CE Committee of Ministers, Slovenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Zbogar at the plenary meeting of the organization.
“Why CE shuts its eyes to the fact that Armenia being a member organization roughly violates human rights, and does nothing to stop this country? Why does not CE use instruments of pressure towards Armenia for it to leave the occupied territories and more than a million of refugees return to their native land? “, MP said during her speech.
“The situation with human rights in Armenia is under PACE monitoring. As to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it is primarily a political issue. It must be solved through political means and international organizations, mainly the OSCE Minsk Group. I do not think that the Council of Europe can play a special role in searching political methods to solve the conflict, ” chairman of the Committee of Ministers said.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan lost all of Nagorno-Karabakh except for Shusha and Khojali in December 1991. In 1992-93, Armenian armed forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and 7 districts surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. – are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Trend News
