ACE President speaks about 'April war' in Karabakh
The agenda of the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has been established with the leaked Panama documents remaining as a topic for current affairs debate. However, at the beginning of the meeting the chairman of the PACE Pedro Agramunt spoke about the tensions on the Karabakh-Azerbaijani Line of Contact earlier in April, A1+’s journalist reports from Strasbourg. He condemned the recent escalation of the conflict and expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims. Pedro Agramunt reiterated that he supports territorial integrity, but this time he did not use the name of Azerbaijan. The PACE President only said that he supports territorial integrity of all CoE member states. Pedro Agramunt stressed that the structure he heads does not have the authority to resolve the Karabakh conflict, but he believes that parliamentary diplomacy can contribute to solving the issue. “We need to build bridges,” Mr Agramunt said urging all delegates to be as careful as possible in their speeches. By the way, breaking the tradition, Pedro Agramunt will not give a press conference during this session. The spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe launched in Strasbourg on April 18. The Nagorno Karabakh issue was suggested to be included in the current affairs section of the agenda. Three topics related to the Karabakh conflict were suggested for the discussion: ‘Crimes committed by Azerbaijan during the recent aggression against Nagorn-Karabakh’ suggested by the Armenian delegation, ‘The tragic escalation of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories of Azerbaijan’ suggested by the Azerbaijani delegation and ‘The last and tragic escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict’ suggested by a French parliamentarian. However, during the PACE Bureau discussion prior to the session it was decided to not to include any issue related to the Karabakh conflict in the agenda as a topic for current affairs debate. It was also suggested to include a current affairs debate on “The case of the 'Panama Papers' which was approved by the members of the Assembly.
