Tuesday, June 26 2018 16:33

ArmInfo. "All participants of the Azerbaijan laundromat, from small to large, must leave our structure, because in conditions of permissiveness even a small fish can become a shark," Naira Zohrabyan, member of the Armenian delegation, said from the rostrum of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of  Europe.

She noted that during the April session in PACE the report of the  PACE independent investigative body on corruption schemes and the  scandal in the Assembly was discussed. In her speech, the deputy  noted:  "Almost the entire report was devoted to Azerbaijan's  criminal deals on bribery of officials in the Assembly and  Azerbaijan's policy in PACE. In the report, the name of Azerbaijan  sounds countless times and the conclusion is only one, for many years  the corrupt scheme in PACE whose main role was played by the  Azerbaijani land-mine, the so-called caviar diplomacy, and as in his  testimony, the former representative of Azerbaijan in the Council of  Europe, Arif Mamadov, Azerbaijan spent 30 million euros on bribes in  the PACE.

According to the report, there are both former and current PACE  deputies on the list of people who conducted illegal actions in favor  of Azerbaijan, whose list was headed by former PACE President Pedro  Agramunt. The independent commission presented a rather large list of  PACE deputies who for many years lobbied Azerbaijan's political  interests in our structure and did everything possible to conceal the  anti- democratic actions in that country, for which they received  millions of dollars. Then, on the basis of the report of the  independent commission and the PACE bureau, Petra de Sutter called on  the most active participants of the Azerbaijani land-mine to lay down  their mandates in the PACE.

At the moment, only Caesar Predan folded his mandate. All the other  participants of the Landmath remain persistent. Therefore, I urge the  Assembly to remain faithful to its principle of "zero tolerance for  corruption" and demand that all participants of the Azerbaijani  Land-Roma fold their mandates in the PACE. Secretary General of the  Council of Europe Thorbjorn Jagland, referring to the report of the  independent investigative body, said that Pedro Agramunt is the  largest "fish" of this list. I believe that not only the largest but  also the smallest "fish" should fold their mandates," concluded  Zohrabyan.