The information read that the incident occurred when Elkhan Suleymanov, member of Azerbaijani Delegation in the Monitoring Committee, expressed his protest against the evaluation of presidential elections in Armenia in the light of democracy, human rights, and rule of law. Chairman Andres Herkel interrupted his speech for several times, and the Azerbaijani Member of Parliament left the meeting room as a token of protest.
Interestingly, on March 22, Mr. Andres Herkel, Chairman of the Monitoring Committee, told the news agency Turan, that he interrupted Suleymanov’s speech not due to the content of his speech, but due to necessity to observe the regulations. Mr. Herkel added: “2 minutes left till the end of the meeting and work of the interpreters. Four speakers, including Suleymanov, remained. Suleymanov was the first on the list. He spoke for 4 minutes, and I asked him to conclude within 2 minutes, as three other speakers from Latvia, Armenia and Austria were still remaining. He couldn’t complete his speech and as a chairperson, I had to stop him. He was not the first colleague, whom I have asked to cut short during the five-hour’s meeting.”
MP Elkhan Suleymanov brought to the attention that Mr. Andres Herkel’s claim regarding the fact that the essence of the incident was the regulations, but not the content of the speech, was beyond reality. Thus, his speech was first interrupted by Chairman Mr. Herkel after the sentence “The aggravating point is that Serj Sargsyan, commander of the armed Armenian groups which committed genocide crimes against civilians in Khojaly town of Azerbaijan on 26th February of 1992, has been elected President.” Then, the Azerbaijani MP turned to Mr. Herkel noting that “Dear Chairman, you were a co-rapporteur on my country. A lot has been done in Azerbaijan for democracy and protection of human rights thanks to your efforts as well. Please allow me to continue my speech using my freedom of speech.”
Elkhan Suleymanov told that Mr. Herkel allowed him to continue his speech. When he went on with his speech informing the Committee members about Sargsyan’s acknowledgement in Tomas de Waal’s book regarding being one of the authors and participants of bloody Khojaly tragedy, Herkel furiously re-interrupted his speech, and namely afterwards, Mr. Suleymanov left the meeting room as a token of protest.
Elkhan Suleymanov stated that Mr. Herkel’s words regarding the interruption of his speech were beyond reality. Thus, he told that when Mr. Herkel first interrupted him at a minute and 40 seconds of his speech and the second time at 2 minutes of his speech.
Elkhan Suleymanov noted the significance and delicateness of clarifying the time-study of his speech. He underlined that the text of his speech in the Monitoring Committee had been disseminated in the mass media a few days before. Therefore, every reader may easily determine the time-study of the interruption og his speech.
The Azerbaijani MP also stressed that he had e-mailed the text of his speech of 17th March to Mr. Herkel and the Committee Secretariat. Thus, the Committee members also received that text. Subsequently, Elkhan Suleymanov stated that one can easily determine the time-study of the interruption of the speech and the objectivity of the information given by Mr. Herkel to the press.
The Member of Parliament also expressed his concern regarding the time allocated to the issues discussed at the Committee meeting. He noted that whereas only few time, namely 4 minutes were allocated to every speaker regarding presidential elections in Armenia, the speakers talking about the issues on Turkey and Romania were allocated more time, some of them even spoke for 40 minutes.
Interestingly, Mr. Herkel did not limit me to speak for 15 minutes during the discussion of “recent situation in Azerbaijan” at the same meeting. I thank him for this. Then why does he interrupt my speech on Armenia under the pretext of regulations? We should be sincere in the house of democracy, freedom, and unity and should not pass false information to the public.
Finally, Elkhan Suleymanov stated that the incident at the Committee meeting was not a coincidence, that Armenia was an aggressive and criminal state, that re-elected president Serzh Sargsyan committed war crimes against the Azerbaijani nation and crimes against humanity, and that the incident aimed at concealing the failure of the elections to meet the principles of democracy and rule of law.
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