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Ganira Pashayeva speaks in PACE plenary meeting about Armeniaâ€™s policy of occupation and ethnic cleansing

24 June 2009 13:30 (UTC +04:00)

Strasbourg. Fuad Gulubayli â€“ APA. Todayâ€™s plenary meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has been devoted to the state of human rights in Europe, APAâ€™s Europe bureau reports. The meeting began with the speech of Antonio Cassese, former chairman of the International Tribunal for Yugoslavia and head of Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Following this, document 11934 â€œThe state of human rights in Europe: the need to eradicate impunityâ€ prepared by Herta Daubler-Gmelin (Germany) and Anna Curdova (Czech Republic) was discussed. Member of Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Ganira Pashayeva also made speech during the discussions. She said as noted in the document there were persons in the CE member states that violated human rights and remained unpunished.
â€œI want to speak about the hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis whose fundamental human rights have been violated. In 1988, Armenian leadership carried out ethnic cleansing and deported 300,000 Azerbaijanis from Armenia. There is not an Azerbaijani in Armenia. Impunity of this crime causes another crime. As a result of the indifference of the international community to the mass violation of human rights, Armenia occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories and carried out ethnic cleansing there. Approximately one million Azerbaijanis were displaced. These people lost their home, property, jobs. Those who committed all this have not answered for their actions, crimes. We hope the European Court of Human Rights will be attentive and delicate towards such people appealing to restore their rights,â€ she said.
Pashayeva said one million people couldnâ€™t return home for more than 15 years despite the UN Security Council and OSCE resolutions. â€œThousands of peaceful Azerbaijanis were severely killed during the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenian army. Hundreds of children, women and elders were massacred in Khojaly. Unfortunately those, who committed these crimes against the peaceful people, have not been brought in justice so far. Azerbaijan declared those people wanted via Interpol, but there is no any result still because Armenian government is not paying attention to the international organizations and protecting those persons. I would like to read a fragment from the Armenian writer Zory Balayanâ€™s book â€œRevival of our soulâ€ written in 1996. â€œWhen we together with Khachatur entered the house seized by our forces we saw 13-year old child nailed to the window by our soldiers. I stripped the skin of his head, breast and belly off. I looked at the watches and the child died seven minutes later as a result of blood loss. Then Khachatur chopped his body. We did it with three more Turk children in that evening. I carried out my duty as an Armenian patriotâ€, said Balayan in his book. This man, who is directly guilty in Khojaly massacre, is wanted via Interpol. But he is living in security in Armenia today. We call on the international organizations to attach serious attention to these issuesâ€.

Pashayeva said hundreds of Azerbaijanis were in prison and hostage in Armenia. â€œDespite the efforts of the government of Azerbaijan and Red Cross, Armenia refuse to release these people for many years and tortures them. I want to show you a picture of a child released from hostage in Armenia. It shows clearly the tortures the people face in prison and hostage in Armenia. We called on the international organizations to stand strongly against such kind of violation of human rights. We must not forget that impunity causes another crimeâ€.

French parliamentarian Francois Rochebloine, who visited Nagorno Karabakh recently, shouted from his place trying to interrupt the Ganira Pashayevaâ€™s speech.