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Opposition Hayastan faction MP Armen Gevorgyan, a member of Armenia's delegation to the PACE, delivered remarks at the debate on the honouring of membership obligations to the Council of Europe by France held on the sidelines of the PACE autumn session on October 10. His full statement is provided below.

“Dear colleagues:

Over the past decades many Member States, including my own, have looked up to France as a source of best practices of good governance, human rights protection and participatory democratic process. But let me focus on one other issue - namely - the human rights dimension in the foreign policy of France.

Since the late 1990s France has been a co-chair in the OSCE Minsk Group which for two decades has tried to find a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The French mediation has held a consistent position in favor of supporting the rights of the indigenous Armenian population of Nagorno Karabakh, including the right to self-determination. I want to put a special attention on the fact that the French position has remained unwavering despite the shifts in global politics of the past two decades that saw oil and gas trumping considerations of human rights and liberal values.

Let me also emphasize, that France, which recognized the Armenian Genocide by law in 2001, bears a special responsibility in addressing the use of force by the Azerbaijani government in modern days - as a clear expression of intent of a second genocide against the Armenian people. The Armenian people highly value this policy.

Colleagues,

Upholding human rights not just in rhetoric, but also in practical policy level would have created a completely different picture in this Assembly and in Europe in general. The real support of the ideals of human rights and dignity can only be manifested during crises, such as now, when we see many states flipping to power politics.

The Armenian perspective on the French role in regional security, in my view, can be summarized in three main points:

First. Despite all the known challenges in modern times, we expect France to contribute to the constructive dialogue among all international stakeholders in support of the understanding that the Nagorno Karabakh issue cannot be considered resolved, given the scale of grave violations of international law and order by Azerbaijan.

Second. We encourage France to facilitate long-term and equitable peace in our region by due consideration of all historical and objective realities, without pushing Armenia to the brink of making “either, or” choices, as well as containing the renewed aggressive pursuits of the Turkic coalition, namely of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

And lastly, we expect France to pursue Azerbaijan's accountability, including in this organization, to make sure there is no sense of impunity for crimes against humanity and all Armenian prisoners in Baku are released."