Azerbaijani delegate defends PACE President
Addressing the spring session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) launched on in Strasbourg on April 18, PACE President Pedro Argamunt, today condemned the recent skirmishes in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone that resulted in casualties on both sides, without giving concrete names. In their speeches made in the first part of the session, members of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Samvel Farmanyan, Hermine Naghdalyan and Naira Zohrabyan, said the PACE president’s assessments ‘are not consistent with the real situation.’ Naira Zohrabyan considered him [Pedro Agramunt] a spokesman for the Azerbaijani President [Ilham Aliyev]. Samvel Farmanyan called PACE delegates’ attention to the rhetoric of the PACE president, which, Farmanyan said, is in favour of Azerbaijan. Angered by the words of the Armenian delegate, Azerbaijani delegate Ganira Pashayeva expressed support for Argamunt, saying he had made fair statements. Pedro Argamunt regularly supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan in his speeches. In his speech, Head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov reprimanded PACE delegates for not adopting a pro-Azerbaijani report during the previous session. He said that Azerbaijan is getting closer to the West, that’s why the provocation was incited. Samad Seyidov added that there are no Azerbaijanis in Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh while many Armenians live in his country [Azerbaian]. He also talked about the necessity of negotiations, which will involve Armenians residing in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijanis who do not live there. As was expected, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation tried to blame the deadly border clashes of April 2-5 on the Armenian side. By the way, PACE President did not respond to the accusations of the Armenian delegation.
