Azerbaijani MPs have raised the plight of refugees from Karabakh and the other occupied areas at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Azerbaijani delegation member Ganira Pashayeva asked Council of Europe Secratary General Thorbjorn Jagland during debates yesterday why the Council's Resolution No 1416, passed on the Karabakh conflict in 2005, had not been implemented.
"Why has the Council of Europe for so long tolerated Armenia’s grave violations of human rights and its destruction of these hard-won European values? Why are the Council of Europe mechanisms not used to pressure Armenia to leave the occupied Azerbaijani territories and to allow the Azerbaijani internally displaced people to return to their homes in accordance with Resolution 1416? I am asking this question on behalf of one million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs [internally displaced persons]," Pashayeva asked.
The secretary-general responded that the OSCE's Minsk Group was taking the leading role in resolving the conflict.
"The reason is that we did not get a role in the Minsk Group, which is dealing with the issue. That was decided by the members of the Minsk Group. As I said in my speech, the rule of law should be part of resolving many of the frozen conflicts in Europe. One should pay much more attention to building the rule of law and upholding human rights as part of a peace strategy for the many frozen conflicts on the European continent. However, the Council of Europe did not have a role in the so-called Minsk Group."
Azerbaijani delegation member Rovshan Rzayev noted that refugees had faced problems in voting in the November parliamentary elections.
"There had been particular problems with voting in areas populated by refugees who had been moved from their home due to the actions of Armenia. These citizens had been denied their vote for 15 years in violation of their rights. Action had to be taken to allow the refugees to return to their home and access their rights in Nagorno-Karabakh," Rzayev said.
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