24/04/2023 | 15:48:32 Thank you, Mister President, Dear colleagues, I'd like to thank the rapporteurs and Mr Aleksander POCIEJ for his moving speech. Yet another progress report without much progress to report about. Mr Vladimir Putin’s army continues slaughtering innocent people in Ukraine. Last week Mr Vladimir Putin’s regime sentenced the opposition politician Mr Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in a Russian penal colony. The situation in the Caucasus has worsened. The Lachin corridor, the only road between... 26/01/2023 | 19:14:10 Thank you, Mr President. Dear colleagues, It is with great sadness that we once again are debating about the humanitarian crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh. Yet again, the debate is at the bottom of the agenda and very few of the members of the Assembly are present. The suffering of 120 000 people of Nagorno-Karabakh deserve greater attention. But before anything else, they deserve that their fundamental human rights are respected. It's not a question of territorial integrity. It's not a question... 23/01/2023 | 16:55:17 Madam President, Dear Colleagues, I’d like to thank Mr Pieter OMTZIGT for the excellent report. It clearly illustrates the importance of punishing the Daesh perpetrators for the abhorrent crimes they have committed: genocide, enslavement, murder, torture, rape, and sexual slavery of women and children. The report also shows the difficulties in prosecution of the committed crimes due to a lack of the necessary structures needed for an international court process. The situation seems unsolvable... 11/10/2022 | 18:17:21 Madam President, Dear Colleagues, In this Parliamentary Assembly we all agree that racism is evil. We all agree that discrimination due to ethnicity or religious beliefs should be combatted by all necessary means. Unfortunately, Mr Momodou Malcolm JALLOW's report equates even a fully‑legitimate criticism of Islam with Islamophobia. He employs well-known left-wing rhetoric by describing society in terms of the oppressed and the oppressors. In this report, Muslims are the oppressed and Western... 10/10/2022 | 16:26:08 President, Dear Colleagues, A few days ago I received a video showing a horrible execution of a woman, an Armenian prisoner of war. I am still haunted by these atrocious scenes and the inhumane cruelty taking place. It's not the only video where such dreadful evil occurs. Since the large scale military aggression against the territorial integrity of Armenia launched by the armed forces of Azerbaijan, numerous videos have been publicised by Azerbaijani users on social media. These videos... 27/04/2022 | 20:23:43 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, dear colleagues, Today is the 63rd day of Russia’s war in Ukraine. For 63 days the brave Ukrainian people have fought against the aggressor. The war pictures are no longer the headlining news around Europe, but the war is still very much ongoing and continues to result in casualties and indescribable atrocities. Civilian casualties - children, elderly, women and men are being hit by the Russian missiles intentionally targeting... 15/03/2022 | 16:24:07 Mr President, dear colleagues, I'm ashamed, I'm terribly ashamed over what's happening in Ukraine, over what we're allowing Russia to do to Ukraine. What's currently taking place in Ukraine is incomprehensible. That this genocide of Ukrainians could happen in our civilised society, despite all lessons given to us by history, is incomprehensible. From where does this utter contempt towards everything our civilisation represents come, towards everything the Council of Europe represents? What... 27/01/2022 | 17:37:35 Thank you, Madam President. Dear colleagues, When Mr Kimmo KILJUNEN was appointed co-rapporteur by the Monitoring Committee, in 2019, Armenia had recently experienced the Velvet Revolution, a peaceful change of government that took place in strict compliance with the constitutional provisions. It was a milestone in the history of Armenian institutions. The newly appointed government had undertaken numerous and ambitious reforms, covering the criminal code and procedure, the judicial system... 28/09/2021 | 19:49:03 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr. President, dear colleagues, I’d like to thank Madam Fresco-Rolfo for her excellent report. 20 years ago, a young woman named Fadime Sahindal appeared before the Swedish Parliament and asked about the right to live freely, in the same way as young women of Swedish origin. Two months later she was dead, murdered by her own father. She had “disgraced” the honor of the family, because she lived a regular life, went to university and had a... 27/09/2021 | 19:37:23 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, dear colleagues, I’d like to thank Mr Mare, Mr Catrougalos, Mr Heer and Mr Schenach for their reports. Monitoring elections is a very important part of the work of the Assembly and I’d like to thank the colleagues who volunteer and participate election observation missions. The parliamentary elections in Armenia was held under very difficult circumstances – after a military defeat, after an overruning of the National Assembly...