Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Alizade / Member of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), MP Ganira Pashayeva, said that in PACE's summer session, the Azerbaijani delegation will raise the issue of Armenian separatists' conducting a referendum in Azerbaijan's occupied Nagorno-Karabakh territory in July.
Pashayeva stressed that direct discussions will not take place at the summer session with regards to Azerbaijan. However, the agenda of the session includes issues also related to Azerbaijan. According to her, on the first day of the session, debates will be organized on parliamentary elections in Armenia, dialogue between cultures and religions, Dika Martin's report regarding secret prisons in Europe, monitoring of countries who have not outlawed the death sentence and anti-Semitism in Europe. In addition, a report will be delivered by the Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers.
Furthermore, a report will be made by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development with regards to Eastern and Southern Europe. Ganira Pashayeva stressed that a large part of the report has been devoted to South Caucasus. The report speaks of the rapid economic development of Azerbaijan and particularly highlights the cooperation with South Caucasus countries, especially Azerbaijan. Further, the report reflects the support by the Council of Europe to international projects implemented in South Caucasus. The parliamentarian stressed that together with the development processes, there are conflicts in South Caucasus which present obstacles to the development. According to her, the Azerbaijani delegation will express its position on this issue.
"We will again state that Armenia prevents development in the South Caucasus region. Due to occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia, Azerbaijan can not establish any relations with this country," Pashayeva underlined.
She added that the agenda of the session will also include issues regarding Abkhazian and South-Osetia conflicts.
Pashayeva spelt out that during the session, the Chairman of the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers will deliver a report and the Azerbaijani delegation will actively participate in this process. The Azerbaijani delegation will raise the issue of the intention of Armenian separatists to hold a referendum in the Nagorno-Karabakh in July and will require the Council of Europe to promptly express their position on it.
Moreover, discussions will be organized on 500,000 refugees in Southern-Eastern Europe and the Balkans. The UN High Commissioner will make a report on this issue. "The Azerbaijani delegation will actively participate in discussions in PACE. We will present to the attention of the participants that if the number of refugees in the whole of Europe equals 500,000, in Azerbaijan this figure exceeds a million," Pashayeva said.
The PACE summer session will take place between 25 and 29 June in Strasburg.