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On April 26, the member of the Armenian delegation to PACE Arusyak Julhakyan delivered a speech at the Plenary Sitting of PACE Spring Session.

“Dear colleagues, honorable chair, earlier today you stated that you see this platform as an agora rather than an arena. And I do share this approach. Unfortunately, sometimes we use this respective platform as a battlefield, forgetting the initial idea the Council of Europe is based on: idea of gathering European nations together to find solutions to common problems, the idea of rebuilding and maintaining peace on a shattered continent, the idea of upholding human rights in Europe.

Yesterday, my Azerbaijani colleague declared that Azerbaijan has done and still does everything to reach peace. And I understood that being in the same organization we, however, have different perceptions concerning the core values the organization is based on. We have different perceptions of peace, different perceptions of human rights.

When you shell a maternity hospital, it does not lead to peace. When you behead an elder civilian, this does not lead to peace.

When you create a trophy park with degrading and dehumanizing mannequins of Armenian soldiers in the heart of your capital, when you proudly take your children to that park and show them these mannequins and so called trophies, this does not lead to peace. This can lead to disrespect, maybe hatred but not peace.

When you refuse releasing prisoners of war, other detained people, when you make them a subject of bargaining continuously demanding more and more concessions, this does not lead to peace. When you give no importance to the ECHR rulings, resolutions of the PACE and the European Parliament related to the Armenian prisoners of war denying the international instruments designed for the protection of human rights, this does not lead to peace.

When you shoot at villages, at peaceful civilians living in their homeland, using small and large caliber weapons, this does not lead to peace.

When you intentionally blow up the gas pipeline and deprive the peaceful population, including children, of heating in the coldest weather conditions leaving them freeze, this is not about peace.

When your Armed Forces using loudspeakers, threaten the peaceful population prompting them to leave their homes and native villages, this is not peace.

When you destruct, annihilate Armenian churches, historical-cultural monuments, cemeteries even after the ruling of the International Court of Justice, respective resolutions by the PACE and the European Parliament, when your president publicly orders to erase the ancient Armenian manuscripts from the Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh, thus erasing the Armenian trace from these territories, this is not about peace.

So, dear colleagues, speaking about peace, let’s make sure that here in this agora we understand that word the same way. Maybe this will help us to start a confidence building process, peace building process and eventually bring a real peace to our region.” Arusyak Julhakyan said.