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At the PACE spring session in Strasbourg on Monday, Armenian MP Armen Gevorgyan from the opposition Hayastan bloc urged the Council of Europe to condemn Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s racist “Gray Wolves” sign flashed at Armenian protesters in Uruguay on April 23. His full speech is provided below. 

"Mister President,

Yesterday, on 24 April, Armenians all around the world and many other nations were commemorating the Armenian Genocide – a crime against humanity that two members of the Council of Europe – Turkey and Azerbaijan – are denying. The International Association of Genocide Scholars calls denial the last stage of the same crime of genocide. There is something else that in our days other than Azerbaijan supported by Turkey denies too: the right of Armenians to live in their historical homeland.

After the Fourty-Four Day War unleashed by Azerbaijan in the fall of 2020, the Armenian people in the Republic of Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh, has faced a dilemma: continue pursuing their path of independent development and life in dignity, preserving their national identity, or repeat the dire destiny of our compatriots that once lived in what now is part of Azerbaijani region, by the name of Nakhchivan.

In the course of 70 years as a part of Soviet Azerbaijan, the entire Armenian population of Nakhchivan has completely disappeared. Armenian cultural and religious heritage in Nakhchivan have been completely demolished. Now Azerbaijan is trying to force the Armenians of Artsakh to have the same destiny.

I call on the Council of Europe to send a clear and strong signal to all parties of the Karabakh conflict, that the international community will continue to support three main principles for the conflict resolution defined by the OSCE Minsk group co-chairmanship. One of these principles, namely the non-use of force or the threat of force, has been violated by Azerbaijan many times and continues to be violated these days. That is why the international community cannot demand the Armenian people of Artsakh to live under the rule of Azerbaijan, which has been carrying out a state policy of ethnic cleansing of Armenians. A state that has unleashed three large-scale wars against them in three decades. A state that is trying to rewrite the history of the region in order to deny the mere existence of Armenian heritage and culture. Finally, a state that is not shy to publicly declare its territorial ambitions against the Republic of Armenia, too.

Mister President, I believe that peace in our region does not have any alternative. For long and sustainable peace, solutions are needed that must be mutually acceptable. The important challenge for our organisation is to limit Azerbaijani efforts to secure the silent consent of Europe in its business of denying the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination in exchange for gas and oil.

Finally, Mister President, it was shocking to see that the person who was the president of this Assembly for two years, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of a member State, Mr Cavusoglu, communicating with the Armenians with the gestures of a Turkish nationalist terrorist organisation. Such beahviour should be unacceptable and condemned by the Council of Europe. I call on my colleagues from Turkey with the same efforts to recognise the genocide of Armenians.

Thank you."