Armen Gevorgyan to CoE Secretary: We are not going to put up with the  legalization by the Council of Europe of the results of the 44-day  war and the promotion of the interests of the Turkic coalition at the  expense of the Armenians

ArmInfo. The Armenian public has not yet heard the resolutions of the Council of Europe condemning Azerbaijan regarding the 44-day war in 2020. Armen Gevorgyan, member of the RA National Assembly from the "Armenia" opposition faction,  stated this at a meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of  Europe.

Opening the meetings, Gevorgyan expressed regret over the fact that  the Secretary General of the Council of Europe did not find an  opportunity for a separate meeting with representatives of the  parliamentary opposition.

"It becomes a bad tradition when representatives of the Council of  Europe avoid direct dialogue and cooperation with representatives of  the main opposition in Armenia. Nevertheless, I would like to draw  your attention to some issues," he said.

In this vein, Gevorgyan drew attention to the fact that the internal  life in Armenia is in full swing today, because there is a great  historical injustice against the people of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"I'm sure that during your meetings with Armenian officials, you kept  hearing about the 'peace agenda' for the region. I'll say right away  that no one in Armenia wants war. But also a lot of people are not  ready for the fact that after 30 years free and independent  existence, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh may live within Azerbaijan.  The people of Nagorno-Karabakh themselves are not ready for this. We  are concerned that, for example, in contrast to the European  Parliament, the desire to equate Armenia and Azerbaijan prevails in  the Council of Europe, the desire to less irritate Azerbaijan and  Turkey with bad resolutions and assessments. By the way, I would like  to draw your attention to the fact that by avoiding direct dialogue  with the opposition both in Armenia and Azerbaijan, you, in fact,  indirectly put another sign of equality between these two countries  in terms of commitment to democracy," the Armenian MP said.

It should be noted that the Armenian public has not yet heard the  resolutions of the Council of Europe condemning Azerbaijan regarding  the 44-day war in 2020, Gevorgyan drew attention to the fact that the  Council of Europe did not accept sanctions after the aggression of  Azerbaijan against the territorial integrity of Armenia since May  2021.

"Azerbaijan can ignore the calls of the international community for  the release of all prisoners of war and detainees, continuing a  definitely racist and xenophobic policy towards Armenians. " think  that this will also be confirmed by the decisions of the  International Court of Justice within the framework of the launched  legal procedures. All this worries us in the context of whether it is  possible to negotiate anything with Azerbaijan at all," the MP said.

"You may ask: what can the Council of Europe do to justly resolve the  conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh? In my opinion, the organization  should begin to objectively assess the situation, which will restrain  Azerbaijan's aggressiveness, as well as protect the quality of  democracy in the member countries of the Council of Europe,"  Gevorgyan said.

In his opinion, this will also contribute to a more productive peace  dialogue in the region. The oppositionist noted that the Council of  Europe must be fair and consistent, and therefore support and protect  fundamental rights and freedoms, and above all the right of nations  to self-determination. At the same time, he noted that he is deeply  concerned about the fact that the Council of Europe does not pay  attention to the obvious retreat from the norms and traditions of  democracy in Armenia.

Gevorgyan stressed that the restriction of freedom of speech and the  work of the media, the growing dependence of the country's judicial  and investigative bodies on the executive branch, the illegal  persecution of opposition representatives have become "new norms" of  the so-called democratic traditions in Armenia.

He also drew attention to the fact that the disputed quality of local  self-government elections in recent months can no longer be ignored  even by international organizations.

"Over the past two months, these unacceptable phenomena have been  supplemented by facts of violation of the rights of citizens to  peaceful protests and the use of brute and disproportionate force by  the police. And on June 3 this year, the police, without warning and  special need, used stun grenades to disperse thousands of peaceful  protests, as a result of which many policemen and civilians were  seriously injured and hospitalized. At the moment, 31 representatives  of the opposition have been arrested for various illegal reasons and  obvious political motives. I would like to remind everyone present  that literally at the spring session of PACE a resolution was adopted  on issues of true democracy, where an important statement is made  that "democracy is not a dictatorship of the majority," Gevorgyan  said.

In conclusion, he stressed that the Armenian opposition does not  intend to turn the Council of Europe into a platform for gladiator  fights with the Armenian authorities and Azerbaijan. "But we are also  not going to put up with the fact that the organization is turning  into a platform for legalizing the results of the 44-day war, clearly  promoting the interests of the Turkic coalition at the expense of the  Armenian people, and a place of silent observation of anti-democratic  processes in our country.