PACE debates on military actions between Azerbaijan and Armenia

Baku/10.10.22/Turan: As a part of the "ongoing debates" at the PACE autumn session on Monday, the issue of "Military actions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including strikes on settlements and civil infrastructure" was discussed.

According to reports of the special correspondent of Turan from Strasbourg, PACE rapporteur on the human consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan Paul Gavan noted with regret that the military escalation on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia in mid-September resulted in the death of about 300 people on both sides.

He pointed out that "the violence included strikes on populated areas and civilian infrastructure."

Gavan reiterated Yerevan's data that 36 towns and villages in Armenia had been shelled.

Further, he stressed that "it is unacceptable for one country to invade the sovereign territory of another."

He called the videos of the alleged execution of Armenian POWs "appalling.

At the same time, he stressed the importance of Azerbaijan's statement to investigate the video and prosecute for these actions in case the authenticity of the footage is confirmed.

At the same time, Gavan pointed to reports from Azerbaijan about the uncovering of evidence of potential war crimes that were committed during the earlier conflict in the 1990s, when parts of the sovereign territory of Azerbaijan were occupied by Armenia.

In particular, Gavan described the discovery of mass grave sites and evidence of torture and executions. "We must never forget that 4,000 Azerbaijanis and 1,000 Armenians are still missing from that early conflict.  Having seen firsthand last year the evidence of the consequences of the occupation by Armenian forces, in particular the destruction of Aghdam, rightly called the Hiroshima of the Caucasus, I have no doubt that these allegations require a thorough investigation as well," Gavan continued.

He welcomed the decision to establish an EU border mission within the countries.

Gavan expressed his hope that the mission would play an important role in building dialogue and trust between the two countries.

Parliamentarians from France, Sweden, Ireland, Spain, Ukraine, Austria, Turkey and several other countries voiied their views during the discussion.

Several MPs such as Boriana Aberg (Sweden), Laura Castel (Spain), Isabelle Santiago (France) voiced accusations only against Azerbaijan.

Other deputies made balanced assessments, calling on both sides to respect the norms of international law, to comply with the commitments undertaken when addressing the Council of Europe.

Thus, the Ukrainian MP Oleksii Goncharenko also stressed the importance and the support of Ukraine for the achievement of peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Drawing attention to Russia's recent rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities, he said: "Once again, there is one country on this continent that wants this war. It is the Russian Federation. What is happening in the South Caucasus is also because of them."

Turkish MP Ahmet Yildiz emphasized the importance of peace for both countries. He noted the need for Armenia to hand over maps of minefields to Azerbaijan.

Parliamentarians from Armenia and Azerbaijan made mutual accusations.

Armenian MP Ruben Rubinyan said his "democratic country was recently attacked by its authoritarian neighbor." "The attack was totally unprovoked and unjustified. Many civilians were killed. Human settlements were damaged. Civilian infrastructure was damaged," he said.

In his turn, Samed Seyidov, head of Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, accused Rubinyan of misleading the Assembly members.

"Unfortunately, he (Rubinyan) speaking about the military actions between Armenia and Azerbaijan did not mention that the Armenian armed forces are still inside Azerbaijan.

What Rubinyan did not say was that on the eve of the September hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Armenian armed forces entered Azerbaijani territory and planted mines," Seyidov said, stressing that Azerbaijani citizens continue to be killed by mines planted by Armenians.

Seyidov accused Armenia of not fulfilling the commitments they signed up to.

"They should withdraw armed forces from Azerbaijan, they should sit down together and think about delimitation and demarcation of territories. They should bring to justice those who committed crimes against Azerbaijanis in Ganja, in Khojaly," Seyidov said.

No documents were adopted as a result of the discussions.-16C06-