Ms. Anne Brasseur,
President oftheParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
And Members of the Bureau
Mr. WojciechSawicki,
Secretary Generalof the Parliamentary Assembly ofthe Council of Europe
Mr. Thorbjorn Jagland,
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Members of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

As a consequence of armed Armenian aggression, 20% of Azerbaijani territories, including Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 neighboring regions, were occupied and over 1 million Azerbaijanis became internally displaced people due to ethnic cleansing policy by Armenia in these territories.

The illegal character of this armed occupation of Azerbaijani territories was confirmed in the resolutions and documents of the UN Security Council and its General Assembly, PACE, European Parliament, OSCE, and other international organizations, demanding immediate and unconditional end of occupation.

PACE Resolution 1416 (2005) once again reiterates that “the occupation of foreign territory by a member state constitutes a grave violation of that state’s obligations as a member of the Council of Europe”, and demanded unconditional withdrawal fromthe occupied territories.

Nevertheless, Armenia ignores the demandsof the resolutions and documents of international organizations, as well as the PACE resolution regarding the unconditional release of Azerbaijani territories, and proved that it insists on keeping the territories of its neighbor Azerbaijan under occupation.

Therefore, I prepared a motion for resolution demanding the application of sanctions against Armenian delegation for its continuous armed occupation of Azerbaijani territories.The motion for resolution is citing recent PACE Resolution 1990 (2014) dated April 10, 2014 on the application of sanctions against Russian delegation, and is urging the Assembly to adopt thesame sanctions against Armenian delegation in PACE,because of respect for one single standard in PACE, until the end of illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territories.

The motion was signed by 58 Members of Parliament representing 14 PACE member states and sent to PACE Secretariat by e-mail on June 7. The Secretariat confirmed the receipt of electron signatureson June 10.According to the Rules of Procedure, the motion for resolutionand its original 58 signatures will be submitted to the Presidential Committee, with the opinion by the Secretary General Mr.Sawicki,on June 22.

Furthermore, surely, PACE Secretary General Mr. Sawicki will not demonstrate discrimination in this issue put into discussion regarding the occupation of Azerbaijani territories. I hope that PACE leadership will demonstrate objective position regarding the submitted motion for resolution co-signed by 58 PACE members representing 14 countries, taking into consideration the fact of occupation of Azerbaijani territories for 22 years, the resolutions adopted on this issue by international organizations, as well as the application of sanctions against Russian delegation citing Crimea.

According to the Rules of Procedure, the motion is to be referred to Political Affairs Committee or Monitoring Committee for appointing a rapporteur,after being discussed at the meeting of the Presidential Committee and decision by the Bureau. I believe that PACE leadership and its Secretary General Mr. Sawicki will realize that it is important to discuss this document co-signed by 58 MPs during the meetings of Presidential Committee and Bureau, and bring the implementation of existing procedures to the attention of PACE.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to PACE members, who signed the motion for resolution submitted under my authorship.

Furthermore, I call on all colleagues to prevent injustice towards excluding the motion for resolution demanding the application of sanctions against Armenian delegation for its continuous armed occupation of Azerbaijani territoriesfrom discussions, and to prevent preference of corporate interests of certain forces to the principles of Council of Europe.

With my highest consideration,

Elkhan Suleymanov

Member of Azerbaijani Delegation to PACE