YEREVAN, APRIL 20, ARMENPRESS. During the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) debates on the Council of Europe’s priorities the Armenian delegation member Naira Zohrabyan delivered a speech regarding Azerbaijan’s refusal to return Armenian captives.

Zohrabyan called on the Assembly to give an assessment to Azerbaijan’s Armenophobic policy and use all its levers for the release of the Armenian captives.

She mentioned the “horrifying” museum in Baku, which was opened by the Azeri government to display waxwork grotesque caricatures of Armenian soldiers, helmets of killed Armenian troops and seized military equipment as trophies.

 “It’s a fact that in the recent years the Council of Europe and our Assembly are undergoing very strange transformations in outlining their priorities. For me, it is at least perplexing that the Council of Europe, which has seemingly transformed into an anti-Russian club, is choosing the issue of the Russian oppositionist Alexey Navalny as the number one subject in all its recent agendas. Whereas what is happening in some Council of Europe-member countries is simply horrifying. A few days ago a museum unprecedented with its cynicism was opened in Baku, the exhibition of military trophies seized from the Armenian side during the latest Artsakh war, and you should’ve seen how Aliyev was proudly walking through the helmets of killed Armenian soldiers, you should’ve seen how Azerbaijani children were playing by choking the mannequins of Armenian soldiers. The issue of this very fascist exhibition in Baku had to become today one of the priority issues. It was horrifying to see how Azerbaijanis were standing in a kilometers-long queue to see that exhibition of disrespect. They had brought their children with them, who were saying that Armenians are their genetic enemies.

Dear colleagues, it’s good that today our assembly will finally discuss the issue of Armenian prisoners of war. Six month after the war we have hundreds of prisoners of war held in Azerbaijani prisons and Azerbaijan not only refuses to provide clear information about them to the European Court of Human Rights, but is also cynically stating that they aren’t prisoners of war. By the way, one of the prisoners of war was laid to rest by his family few days ago. I want to understand why the Council of Europe Human Rights Commissioner hasn’t yet visited the Baku prisons to see the inhumane conditions in which Armenian prisoners of war are held.

Dear colleagues, when in our neighborhood Council of Europe-members Azerbaijan and Turkey are transgressing human rights in the most cynical way, when Aliyev is stating that they won this war, because they raised an entire generation of Azerbaijani youth with hatred for the enemy, it is this kind of racist and Armenophobic statements which should become the subject of discussions of our organization, otherwise with fake agendas we are ignoring the fundamental values of our organization,” Zohrabyan said.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan