Your trusted source

The activities of the PACE Bureau were discussed at the summer session of PACE that started in Strasbourg on June 22. The head of the Armenian delegation, Vice Speaker of Armenian parliament Hermine Naghdalyan attended the discussions. She submitted her written statement to PACE. In the statement, Ms Naghdalyan urged the Assembly to preserve the spirit of partnership based on the previous decisions and not to escalate the situation concerning a peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

The statement notes: “As regards a peaceful settlement, it is worth reminding the Assembly that on their accession to the Council of Europe, Armenia and Azerbaijan undertook the commitments to continue efforts on an exclusively peaceful resolution to the Karabakh conflict. Armenia’s position is in line with the spirit of the international community, which is reflected in a number of statements adopted by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs, namely: to resolve the conflict by exclusively peaceful means.

“PACE may later contribute to a peaceful resolution of the Karabakh conflict by assisting the OSCE Minsk Group. The Assembly may initiate direct contacts with Nagorno Karabakh, regardless of its status, in order to promote human rights, democratic principles, and the rule of law. The Council of Europe has such experience in other conflict zones. In Europe, the rights of each person are under the protection of the European Convention on Human Rights,” the statement says.