Azerbaijan urges PACE to impose sanctions against Armenian delegation
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijan has called on Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to impose sanctions against Armenian delegation for Yerevan's continuous occupation of Azerbaijani territories.
Member of Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE Elkhan Suleymanov addressed an appeal to PACE President Anne Brasseur, Secretary General of Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland, PACE Secretary General of Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe Wojciech Sawicki, Members of Committee of Ministers of Council of Europe and the Bureau of Council of Europe, AzerTag news agency reported.
The appeal said as a consequence of Armenia's armed aggression, 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven neighboring regions, were occupied. Meanwhile, over one million Azerbaijanis became internally displaced due to ethnic cleansing policy of Armenia in these territories.
Suleymanov noted that the illegal character of the armed occupation of Azerbaijani territories has been confirmed in various resolutions and documents issued by the UN Security Council, its General Assembly, PACE, European Parliament, OSCE, and other international organizations which call for an immediate and unconditional end of the occupation.
PACE Resolution 1416 (2005) once again reiterates that "the occupation of foreign territory by a member state constitutes a grave violation of that state's obligations as a member of the Council of Europe", demanding unconditional release of the occupied territories.
"Nevertheless, Armenia ignores the resolutions and documents of international organizations, as well as PACE's resolution calling for unconditional release of Azerbaijani territories. This proves that Armenia insists on keeping the territories of neighboring Azerbaijan under occupation," Suleymanov said.
"Hereby, I put forth a motion for resolution calling for imposing sanctions against Armenian delegation for Yerevan's armed occupation of Azerbaijani territories," Suleymanov said.
He also noted that the motion was signed by 58 members of Parliament representing 14 PACE member states and sent to PACE Secretariat by e-mail on June 7.
The Secretariat confirmed the receipt of electronic signatures on June 10. According to rules of procedure, the motion for the resolution was submitted to the Secretary with original 58 signatures.
The appeal said "the draft resolution is an official document of the Assembly and it will be impossible to block this document with 58 signatures, if it is put into discussion at the meeting of Presidential Committee and Bureau. However, the Armenian delegation will try to stop it under different pretexts, ignoring the existing procedures".
"Hereby, I would like to express my gratitude to PACE members, who signed the motion for resolution submitted under my authorship," he said.
"Furthermore, I call on you to prevent any injustice against the motion for resolution that demands the application of sanctions against Armenian delegation for its continuous occupation of Azerbaijani territories, by excluding it from public discussion and preference of corporate interests of certain forces to the principles of Council of Europe," Suleymanov said.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s.
Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.