26/01/2023 | 19:54:23 Thank you, Mister President. I really hear and listen to all the speeches. I feel so sorry that some members of this distinguished Assembly forget about the basic principles of international law. Dear colleagues, The Lachin road and Karabakh is a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan. I would like to remind you of this. I will speak about the road and about the story that the Armenian side is trying to portray here. But before that I would like to remind you of something, which this Assembly... 25/01/2023 | 12:12:43 Thank you, Madam Chair. Dear Colleagues, The resolution feels like a breath of fresh air after the pandemic scaremongering and a series of disturbing reports and resolutions undermining freedom of speech and human rights produced by our Assembly. We are finally getting back to our core mission, which is defending human rights, not undermining them. During the last few years, we substantially retreated the standard of human rights. It would be an oversimplification to blame solely the pandemic... 25/01/2023 | 11:12:35 Thank you very much, Mr President. Dear colleagues, Armed conflict remains an important cause of environmental damage, leading to food and water insecurity, loss of livelihoods and biodiversity loss. Wars have devastating effects on the environment. We in Azerbaijan know that very well, unfortunately. As a result of Armenian occupation, Azerbaijani cities and villages have been destroyed. A number of cities were completely destroyed, and subsequently dismantled to the last stone. Once a... 24/01/2023 | 18:39:37 Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, in 1993, during the First Summit of the Council of Europe, the heads of states gave to the Council of Europe a new mission: creating a shared pan-European space where democracy, human rights and rule of law can thrive for the benefit of all Europeans finally united under one roof: the common European home. Sadly, today, after 30 years, we seem to be further away from this noble goal. A reform of the Council of Europe is long due. The world changed... 14/10/2022 | 13:21:00 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Dear colleagues, There have been lots of accusations and finger pointing from Arm and Az delegations, so I don’t want to make loud statements, I want to give you couple of facts. It has been almost 2 years since the end of war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. There are ups and downs in the negotiations process and recently we heard some encouraging news from the European summit in Prague where both Armenia and Azerbaijan participated and... 13/10/2022 | 18:10:16 Dear colleagues, I will start my speech on a positive note. At the 2020 Olympics, 49% of all participants were women. The highest figure ever. In anticipation of these competitions the International Olympic Committee approved new rules. That each NOC must have at least one male and one female athlete on its team. For the first time, each NOC may also designate one male and one female flag bearer to carry the flag together during the opening ceremony. These are small but symbolic decisions... 12/10/2022 | 11:25:11 Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, I would like to thank the rapporteurs, Mr John HOWELL and Mr Boriss CILEVIČS, for the comprehensive report covering a number of important issues pertaining to the honouring by Türkiye of its obligations under Council of Europe membership. I'm glad that the report contains a clear statement that the work of the rapporteurs has been carried out in a constructive and positive dialogue and engagement with Turkish counterparts. This is a very good and... 24/06/2022 | 11:16:22 Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, I am from Azerbaijan. Our region, the South Caucasus, has seen lots of challenges: the Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands affected the region and impeded development. It deprived us of many chances during the three decades it continued, but now it's a new era. After the occupation of Karabakh and East Zangezur regions of Azerbaijan, with the departure of Armenian occupational forces we have a new situation, new chances and new risks. Due to the... 24/06/2022 | 10:33:17 Dear colleagues, Vaccines played a pivotal role in improving public health. They saved lives and protected societies. Vaccines are the achievement of scientific methods, work and sacrifice of scientists and health practitioners. They are part of society's public health mechanism. They have already been some anti-vaccine sentiments on the road but traditionally it was a marginal voice, a small portion of society. The level of vaccine hesitancy in the case of Covid-19 vaccinations is extremely... 23/06/2022 | 18:34:57 Thank you very much. Dear Colleagues, Today, control over online communication literally means power. Never in the history of humankind was there such an efficient way to influence people's behaviour often without their knowledge. It is by all means a scary prospect. Even scarier is the fact that there is no real accountability mechanism for either social media captains, governments or security services when they introduce online control or manipulation mechanisms. There are currently few...