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The Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is in attendance of the PACE autumn session held from 10-14 October. The delegation led by Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Ruben Rubinyan includes Vladimir Vardanyan, head of the Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, Eduard Aghajanyan, head of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations, MPs Sona Ghazaryan, Arusyak Julhakyan, Armen Gevorgyan, Armen Rustamyan and Hayk Mamijanyan.

Rubinyan addressed the PACE current affairs debate on “Military hostilities between Azerbaijan and Armenia, including strikes against settlements and civilian infrastructures” held on Monday. His full statement is provided below.

"Thank you, Madam Chair.

First of all I would like to thank all the speakers who spoke before me, especially Mr Paul GAVAN, for telling the truth and establishing the facts.

Indeed, my country, my democratic country, was recently attacked by its authoritarian neighbour. The attack was completely unprovoked and unjustified. Many civilians were killed. Settlements were damaged. Civilian infrastructure was damaged. Mr Paul GAVAN presented it all.

Why did this happen dear friends?

It happened because the aggressor wasn't condemned before.

I remember during the last session, here in this hemicycle, I was talking about another Azeri incursion on sovereign Armenian territory which happened in 2021. I was talking about Armenian prisoners of war that are still kept in Azerbaijan. They were kept in Azerbaijan back then, they are still kept there.

Now, a couple of months later, we have a new aggression, a new occupation, new prisoners of war, some of whom were killed, and there is footage of these videos, of them being summarily executed by the Azerbaijanis immediately after being captured. This happened because they were not condemned before.

Dear colleagues, Mr Samad SEYIDOV, the Chair of the Azerbaijani delegation is going to speak after me. Most probably, he is going to resort to the good old Azerbaijani tradition of denial saying that Azerbaijani aggression simply did not happen, but the Armenians deserved it. This is what he is going to do. He is going to tell Mr Paul GAVAN, Ms Boriana ÅBERG, and the other speakers that they are wrong. That there is no incursion into Armenian territory.

Why?

Because it's his job. Mr Samad SEYIDOV's job is to justify the actions, the illegal crimes, of his authoritarian government here.

Speaking about the necessity of talking about peace in this organisation, I want to inform you that the President of PACE, Mr Tiny KOX, invited me and Mr Samad SEYIDOV to have a meeting in Paris when we had a Monitoring Committee meeting.

This meeting had to be held on 15 September. Why did it not happen?

Simply because two days before this meeting my country was attacked by Azerbaijan and I didn't go to Paris.

Dear friends, it's possible to talk about peace when your colleague wants to talk about peace. It's impossible to talk about peace while they are shooting at you, while they are occupying your territory. It's impossible.

I understand that many of our friends have been reluctant to take sides when it comes to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is complicated. I understand.

This is different. Whenever there is a case of an authoritarian government attacking its democratic neighbour and occupying its territory, this must be condemned, and the Azerbaijani troops have to withdraw from Armenian territory immediately, and Armenian prisoners of war should be released.

Thank you."