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At April 26 press conference, the Head of NA Delegation to PACE Ruben Rubinyan, members Vladimir Vardanyan, Sos Avetisyan, Tatevik Hayrapetyan, Edmon Marukyan and Hovhannes Igityan summed up the results of PACE Spring Session held in Strasbourg on April 19-22.

The Head of the delegation has informed that the main goal and the problem of the Armenian Delegation in the session was the issue of prisoners of war: “In contrast with the previous session, this time we succeeded in making the issue on the Armenian prisoners of war and refugees the current theme in the frameworks of the plenary session. Except the Turkish and the Azerbaijani delegates, all the European delegates giving a speech clearly expressed their position to the fact that the Armenian prisoners of war should be immediately returned.

Ruben Rubinyan underlined that PACE Monitoring Committee made a statement calling on Azerbaijan to immediately return the Armenian captives: “For this session, our delegation in the frameworks of PACE implemented the task set before them, continuing to enlarge the international pressure on Azerbaijan and try to reach the solution with that.”

The member of the delegation Vladimir Vardanyan, emphasizing the statement made by PACE, has underlined that they clearly call on Azerbaijan by that, to return the Armenian captives without preconditions: “This is the main point of the European structure.” He also informed that the colleagues of Iceland have presented a draft law of the relevant resolution which should be debated by the bureau, and if it succeeds then an opportunity would be given to present other reports on this issue. The Swedish colleagues try to present the draft resolutions in the same content.

Tatevik Hayrapetyan highlighted the united working style of the Armenian delegations in the international platforms. “The steps aimed at returning the captives should be really persistent. There shall be created such situation that it will become a real headache for Aliyev to keep the Armenian captives in Baku one more day,” the deputy noted.

Edmon Marukyan informed that the co-rapporteur Stefan Schennach approached him by the issue of Azerbaijan after his speech related to the so called “military trophy park” opened in Azerbaijan and asked to show him the photos. “He carefully watched the photos and said that it made a big noise all over Europe. I think that the issue made a big noise also due to the work of our delegation. And, in essence, Aliyev, by opening that park, has helped us to show with more obvious facts what terrorist group we are dealing with,” Marukyan concluded.