Armenia loses independence: Azerbaijani MP
By Sara Rajabova
Armenia which is losing its independence has turned into an outpost controlled by others, a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the PACE said.
Rafael Huseynov made the remarks at the spring session of the PACE on April 8 while addressing a question about human rights in Armenia to Nils Muižnieks, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights.
After presenting a committee report on the activities in 2013 on the second day of session, Muižnieks responded to the questions of the Assembly members.
Huseynov noted in his question that Armenia has pursued a policy of aggression not only against Azerbaijan, but also against his own people in the past 20 years.
He said as a result, Armenia has practically lost its independence and become an outpost managed by others.
Azerbaijan did not receive assistance from international organizations for many years and solved its problems by itself and had enough opportunity for this, Huseynov added.
He also asked what concrete steps have been taken to protect the rights of hundreds of thousands of Armenians who had lost their right to independence and were controlled by mafia rules.
Responding to Huseynov's question, Muižnieks noted that he plans to visit Armenia and investigate the big problems in the sphere of human rights in that country in detail.
He said each member must be committed to the values advocated by the Council of Europe and implement them consistently.
Armenia's ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani territory leaves the country outside the ongoing developments in the region, especially where major economic projects are concerned.
Thus, with a population of about 3.5 million people, Armenia faces dire economic challenges, high inflation, and demographic problems such as rapidly increasing emigration.
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 US, Russian, and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.