24/06/2024 | 12:06:14 Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Mister President. Mister President, thank you very much for this anthem. Maybe we should start all the sessions with such an anthem because it reminds us who we are, where we are and what we stand for, because there are around 700 million people, and some of them do not even know what the Council of Europe is! But they trust in us, they trust in us, in our values and our roots. And the others who are waiting for us to go back to their countries or we... 18/04/2024 | 17:14:37 Mister President, thank you very much. In these hours, the Middle East is on the brink. On the precipice of a regional war that would have massive repercussions for the whole world, now that the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine is keeping us on tenterhooks. The country that is taking brutal action against its own population and threatening the entire region, not just Israel, Iran is also, not coincidentally, the country that supplies Russia with the weapons to terrorise the people of... 16/04/2024 | 17:52:49 Thank you very much, Mister President. This is a historical moment, dear colleagues, dear women and men of Kosovo, I know how you like more to say "Kosova". Dear Ms Dora BAKOYANNIS, I really have to thank you very much for this report, and I have to thank you very much for your wisdom, your power, your encouragement and as we know as Chairs of groups, your persistence. In the end, all this makes progress possible. I know that you face all kind of criticism from different actors in different... 24/01/2024 | 17:53:05 Thank you very much, Mister President. Professor Doctor Gubad Ibadoghlu is a professor, a very well recognised professor from Azerbaijan. He should be professor at the university in Dresden just now. He is someone who is credible, who works and who works for the best of his own country, Azerbaijan. But unfortunately, he is imprisoned. For nothing – just for speaking the truth – for speaking about the situation in Azerbaijan around corruption in the political sphere. And he is not alone. They... 23/01/2024 | 17:03:40 Madam President, First of all, I would like to thank Mr Piero FASSINO warmly for producing this report and for taking on this difficult task in this difficult geopolitical situation, perhaps the most difficult in the world because, of course, you can put yourself in both sides' shoes, for taking on this report. This morning I read an interview with Ehud Olmert, the former Prime Minister of Israel, I can only highly recommend it; it's an interview worth reading, which makes it clear that you... 22/01/2024 | 15:42:48 Dear Mister President, I didn't have the opportunity until now: so, congratulations from here, Mister President. And I really want to use the opportunity to thank Mr Tiny KOX. As someone who has a very clear position in the spectrum in the Netherlands, is located quite on the left - I would think so, maybe others in the Netherlands have other ideas - with clear ideas, I think you really represent this Parliamentary Assembly from the middle. You were the one who led the Assembly in recent... 22/01/2024 | 12:23:50 Thank you very much. Dear President, under Article 8, I challenge the still unratified credentials of the delegation of Azerbaijan on substantive grounds. Unfortunately, I see no other chance than to send this clear and unmistakable signal now. There's not only a dramatic escalation in domestic politics with more and more political prisoners. There's not only the violent displacement of more than 100 000 people in Karabakh, Nagorno-Karabakh. There is a direct responsibility of the Azerbaijani... 12/10/2023 | 19:32:34 Dear Mister President, Dear colleagues, Dear Government of Türkiye, you should be proud of Osman Kavala. He is a son of your country, an internationally recognised intellectual. If you were here, some of you would leave the room, but if you had been here on Monday, you should probably be proud of his wife, who is sad and brave in the same way. You should be proud of the winner of one of the most important international human rights prizes, the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize. Mr Osman Kaval... 12/10/2023 | 17:49:27 Dear President, dear colleagues, This Assembly is giving today a very clear message. No country - no country - should cross red lines in this organisation. Azerbaijan is not just one centimetre before this red line; Azerbaijan is just standing on the red line. One step more, one step more, and one step more towards the core territory of Armenia would mean that Azerbaijan crossed this red line. This Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is fed up - this is my impression - with the... 21/06/2023 | 16:32:53 Dear Mister President, Mister Mr Ian LIDDELL-GRAINGER, Congratulations for this applause. It was the applause from those one who want to limit this organisation. It was the applause from the collected right extremists all over Europe, who are fighting against the values of this organisation and this organisation as a whole. That is a group which hides behind your leadership in this Assembly. The majority have another opinion here. This organisation is about values and the highest values are...