30/09/2024 | 17:51:07 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mister President, It's been a year since the ethnic cleansing of Armenians in Nagorno Karabakh. At least 120 000 Armenians who lost their ancestral homes in Nagorno Karabakh are in despair and denied of any future. For over a year Azerbaijan has – with impunity - been destroying the Armenian heritage in Artsakh, the identity of our people. Dozens of Armenian prisoners and leadership of Nagorno Karabakh among them remain in Baku. The situation... 26/06/2024 | 19:37:40 Thanks. There are three criteria in my view for evaluating monitoring reports: objectivity, relevance, and utility. From the objectivity standpoint, I have to say that the documents submitted to this debate do not reflect the real situation with human rights and democracy in Armenia. Since Resolution 2427 and in the documents tabled today there is a fundamental flaw and misunderstanding about the nature of the current situation in my country. To put it more clearly, the institutions that... 24/06/2024 | 16:38:48 Madam Chair, Europe is facing crucial challenges. They will define not only the place of Europe in the global order but also its future as a unique civilisation. I will elaborate about three such issues. First, all institutions of European integration and co-operation should redefine their mechanism of operation and functionality. The Council of Europe has a special mission in this regard and the new Secretary General should deal will this challenge without delay. We have to avoid the... 18/04/2024 | 18:12:13 Dear colleagues, Armenia is the closest of the Council's country to the Middle East, so everything that happens and can happen there is critically important and has an impact on my country. We are also very concerned because hundreds of thousands of Armenians live in the countries of the region. In Armenia, it is not just enough to adequately understand what is happening in the region and how it may end. We must also define red lines for honest relations with allies, partners and neighbours... 18/04/2024 | 12:19:23 Dear colleagues, This Assembly has constantly pleaded for the strengthening of the Council of Europe's action to effectively protect human rights to a healthy environment. In Reykjavík last year, the heads of state and government endorsed the political commitment to defend this right and to make it a visible priority for the Council of Europe's work. The two reports we have just debated call for action. We must move from words to deeds so that the right to a healthy environment takes shape... 16/04/2024 | 18:41:56 Mister President, Europe has traditionally tried to skip drawing parallels between Kosovo and other unrecognised entities that aspire to exercise their right to self-determination, the Republic of Artsakh for example. Such a selective approach to self-determination and its application has become one of the key sources of instability on the continent. Instead of turning into a source of international order and justice, it became a blunt instrument for geopolitical shifts. Both Kosovo and... 15/04/2024 | 16:09:35 Mister Chairman, domestic political situation in Armenia after 2021 parliamentary election fully demonstrated the importance of such a resolution, but is unlikely to stop the erosion of parliamentary democracy. An acceptable political and parliamentary culture is not being formed in Armenia unfortunately, since there is not a single case of changing the current government through elections. In my country, the clear-cut constitutional guarantees and mechanism adopted for ensuring the proper... 15/04/2024 | 13:07:48 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, The situation in our region is becoming increasingly unstable and controversial. President Aliyev, supported by Turkey, has perceived the congratulatory messages from the European leadership on his re-election as a European mandate to continue his course against Armenians. At the same time, tens of thousands of Armenians after ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenian prisoners in Baku, do not see the same European... 23/01/2024 | 17:44:36 Madam Chair, Unfortunately, violence has become one of the main mechanisms for implementing the plans of not only terrorist groups and authoritarian states but also democratic governments. As the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE and other international organisations lose their relevance and influence, unacceptable forms of solidarity between authoritarians and democracy appear, which are often based on a union of arms and oil. Such solidarity is limiting the right of many nations to self... 22/01/2024 | 17:39:34 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) Mr President, During the last World Forum for Democracy, in this very hemicycle, a conclusion was made, that democracies tend to experience peace, but transitions to democracy do not guarantee peace. I don’t know if this was a justification for the ongoing wars and ethnic cleansing in Europe, but this logic put the post-Soviet democracies geographically at the center of the confrontation between the Western and Eastern paradigms. As a result...