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The member of the RA NA delegation to PACE Vladimir Vardanyan gave a speech at PACE regular session. The MP said in his speech:

“Thank you, Madame Chair,

It used to be said, “the best way of defense is attacking someone” and, unfortunately, trying to keep the calm situation in this Hemicycle until now, our Azeri colleagues are trying to attack us and I am obliged to answer. I would like just to say, first of all, Madame Arpadarai we were, we are and we will be open to opening all kinds of communication and transportation in our region.

But ladies and gentlemen International Law is not just a puzzle, when you’re choosing your favorite pieces and say that this is International Law, International Law is a single, unique phenomenon, you cannot divide any part of it. What I am hearing now, what all of you hearing now, Madame Arpadarai said, “No, we don’t need an open communication, we would like to have a corridor from Azerbaijan to Nakhchivan, because historically it is ours.”

So, what does it mean under the UN charter, this means the following: “We demand this, if you do not give us this we will conquer you.” This is a direct address to aggression, this is an imminent threat to the security of the region and all of us keep silent, nobody would like to react.

Ladies and gentlemen once again I would like to stress we are in favor of the opening of all transportation and communication means, but without any sovereign corridor logic because it is undermined the very basics of the UN charter.

Unfortunately, Mr. Huseynov left this Hemicycle. A couple of days ago I said this hemicycle is not only for speaking but also for listening. I think you should be here and listen. When you’re comparing the situation in Shushi with Strasburg just walking on the streets trying to see that each street has two names because this country respects the people who live there, who would live there. And we will see French and German mentioning the streets on the plates.

What happened in Shushi, you are calling, after “this years” of “occupation “you destroy this and this” …, we renewed the mosque an ancient and very important mosque in Shushi what is Shushi now, and nobody would like to go there to visit it. The churches are destroyed, and the name of Shushi in Armenian is destroyed.

Madame Arpadarai we have more than 38 POWs in your prisons, how many times have you visited them, how many times have you said to your leadership, this family state, that they should be released, not only a trilateral statement but, because of the Geneva convention and because of this are the values of this Organization, and we would like to be a pillar of this organization.

I understood that all of you are sick and tired of this discussion but we have people live people which are each day under the threat of being tortured in Azerbaijani prisons and nobody would react to it sometimes I think that I’m speaking and nobody listening,

Thank you and sorry for being so emotional.” Vladimir Vardanyan concluded the speech.