Today, on 20 April, in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, MP Naira Zohrabyan stated that she does not understand why the issue of Russian opposition Alexei Navalny is becoming a priority topic of the Assembly, while the release of Armenian prisoners of war, Armenophobic statements of Azerbaijani political elite in Azerbaijan, the opening of the shameful exhibition of the war booty of the Armenian Armed Forces does not receive a clear assessment from the international community.

In her speech, Zohrabyan, speaking about the exhibition of Armenian military equipment opened in Baku, described it as ordinary fascism.

Speaking about the Armenian prisoners of war, Zohrabyan noted that the parents of one of the prisoners of war recorded in the Azerbaijani videos have buried the body of their son who was killed in captivity.

Naira Zohrabyan called on the Assembly to assess Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy and use all its levers for the release of Armenian prisoners of war.

In her speech, Zohrabyan said:

“Dear Colleagues,

Today we are discussing a very important report – the priorities and strategy of our structure.

It is a fact that in recent years the Council of Europe and our Assembly have undergone many strange transformations in outlining their priorities.

It is at least puzzling to me that the Council of Europe, which seems to have become an anti-Russian club, has chosen the issue of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny as the number one topic on all its recent agendas. Meanwhile, what is happening in the 21st century in some Council of Europe member states is simply horrible. An exhibition unprecedented in its cynicism opened in Baku a few days ago. The exhibition of military loot confiscated from the Armenian side in the last Artsakh war and one had to see how Aliyev proudly walked through the helmets of the killed Armenian soldiers, one had to see how the Azerbaijani children had fun suffocating the mannequins of the Armenian soldiers.

The issue of that fascist exhibition in Baku was to become one of the priority issues today. It was horrible to see Azeris queue for miles to see this insulting exhibition. They brought their children with them, declaring that Armenians were their genetic enemy.

Dear Colleagues, it is good that today our Assembly will finally discuss the issue of Armenian prisoners of war. Six months after the war, we have hundreds of prisoners of war held in Azerbaijani prisons; Azerbaijan not only refuses to provide the European Court of Human Rights with clear information about Armenian prisoners of war, but cynically declares that they are not prisoners of war. By the way, one of the prisoners of war was recently buried by his parents. I want to understand why the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has not yet visited Baku prisons to see the inhumane conditions in which Armenian prisoners of war are being held.

Dear colleagues, when the member states of Europe, Azerbaijan and Turkey, are the most cynically violating human rights, when Aliyev declares that they won this war because they raised a whole generation of Azerbaijani youth with hatred for the enemy, just these, such racist, anti-Armenian statements should be the subject of discussion of our structure, otherwise we violate the basic values ​​of our structure with fake agendas.”

She also noted that the issue of prisoners has not been resolved for months, as the Azerbaijani side declares that they are not prisoners.

Details in the video.