One of the members of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, Edmon Marukyan, the head of the "Bright Armenia" parliamentary faction, addressed the PACE winter session in Strasbourg.
"In my speech, I would like to refer to the decision of the PACE Bureau, which today rejected the organization of an urgent discussion on the issue of Armenian prisoners of war being held in Azerbaijan. I think we are discussing very important issues here, this issue is not inferior to any other important issue, but it has been ignored by the Bureau.
After that, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation speaks here about the formation of an atmosphere of trust and peace, but how is it possible to talk about it if Azerbaijan continues to hold Armenian prisoners of war and civilians in its prisons after the ceasefire is established, tortures them.
The European Court of Human Rights has taken interim measures against Azerbaijan on this issue, but they are ignoring the decisions of the Court. Moreover, after that they also killed a prisoner of war. Azerbaijan honors its military, which behead Armenian soldiers, behead a peaceful elderly resident of Shushi. And after all this, they talk about trust.
I think we have the following solution in this situation: to listen to the call of the Azerbaijani delegate for peace, to release the Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, and then to talk about other issues. And if they continue to keep our prisoners of war in their prisons, it should be noted that this is the working style of a terrorist country. Only the terrorists are holding hostages, then impose preconditions for their release.
So, how can a country that behaves like a terrorist be a member state of the Council of Europe, where human rights, democracy, the rule of law are the cornerstones? Therefore, I call on the international community, all international bodies and organizations to put pressure on the Azerbaijani authorities to release Armenian prisoners of war and civilians, otherwise Azerbaijan will be considered a terrorist state, which holds prisoners of war after the ceasefire.
Armenia, for its part, has fulfilled all the provisions of the ceasefire agreement, and Azerbaijan violates it by not releasing our prisoners of war. Thus, I demand the release of our prisoners of war and civilians", Marukyan said.
