On November 6, the Head of the RA NA Armenia Faction Seyran Ohan yan and the deputies of the Faction Artur Khachatr yan , Anna Grigoryan and Elinar Vardanyan met with the co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Monitoring Committee on Armenia Kimmo Kiljunen and Boriana Åberg.
The deputies of the Faction valued the pro-Armenian activity of the the co-rapporteurs in PACE, stressed the facts of genocide and deprivation of homeland perpetrated in Nagorno Karabakh by the authorities of Azerbaijan, the international crime of the Azerbaijani invading forces on the territory of the Republic of Armenia. The deputies highlighted the condemnation of Azerbaijan’s actions by the international community, the urgency of eliminating the consequences, recorder that they are not sufficient yet.
At the guests’ request the deputies presented their approaches on the political settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. In particular, the occupation of the Nagorno Karabakh territory and the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population cannot be observed in any way as a final solution of the conflict. The conflict cannot be regulated on the basis of the well-known principles in case of honouring and realizing the right to free self-determination of the Nagorno Karabakh people. As a first step, it was considered necessary to ensure the return of our compatriots of Nagorno Karabakh to the homeland, the preconditions of the return include the granting of the transitional (temporary) status to Nagorno Karabakh, the presence of the security guarantees, including the international peacekeeping forces, as well as ensuring the uninterrupted and safe communication with Armenia.
The deputies of the Armenia Faction also presented to the co-rapporteurs the cases of political persecutions, violation of democracy, human rights in Armenia, especially regarding, in their opinion, initiating fake criminal cases against political opposition, using the detention as a punishment by the courts, the obstacles caused before the advocates, the cases of restricting the freedom of assemblies, speech and press, politicizing the free and autonomous state bodies and appropriating them by the authorities, the efforts of establishing autocratic government in the country, ignoring the rights reserved to the parliamentary opposition by the Constitutions. Emphasizing the work with the Association of Judges, the Chamber of Advocates and the Union of Journalists of Armenia, the guests were presented a brief envelope on the mentioned issues.