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“Dear Colleagues, today I am going to speak about the elections of the local self-government bodies held in Artsakh Republic on September 8. Why? Because the elections held in Artsakh were unique with their legality and democracy. On September 8, elections of local self-government bodies were held in all 228 communities of Artsakh Republic, in fact, elections of the community heads and the members of the Elders in all communities at the same time.

The assessment of the observers taking part in the elections was distinct: there are a number of CoE member countries, where they even cannot dream about holding such democratic, open and competitive elections. I would especially like to underline that out of the elected heads of communities 16 are women, which is still not a big number, but it is evident that in Artsakh women began much more actively involving in the national and local self-government bodies’ elections.

Dear colleagues, after establishing its independence numerous national and local self-government bodies’ elections, where they proved the respect towards the democratic development and human rights of their country. I am again obliged to use the language of the Declaration of Human Rights and remind everybody that any person irrespective of its place of residence or political, legal status of the country cannot be undergone to discrimination. I would like very much that our structure would not deviate from that language and assess the fair and competitive elections held in Artsakh. And once again I would like to remind you that not being CoE member, Artsakh has voluntarily assumed and fulfilled a number of CoE obligations, one-sidedly joining numerous conventions of our structure, complying its legislation with European standards, which put our structure before its legitimate members.

Why do I speak about all this today? Because, I would like once again our structure to ask one question to itself, if even there is an argument on the international status of Artsakh: if there is an argument for the Council of Europe on being a human for the people living in Artsakh and having human rights. I am sure there is not. My call to the Assembly is distinct: don’t ignore the democratic processes going on in Artsakh, support the Artsakh people for improving the laws and institutes and strengthen the human rights, because the people will win from it. And the people are more than any document and status.”