A real scandal took place during the free debates in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Friday. PACE President Pedro Agramunt turned off the microphones of Armenian delegation members Naira Karapetyan and Naira Zohrabyan.
Naira Zohrabyan told Armenian News – NEWS.am reporter the details of the incident, noting that during the free debates in PACE Pedro Agramunt rudely interrupted Naira Karapetyan’s and her speeches, violating all the PACE regulations.
“Our speeches related to the criminal case launched by Milan’s Prosecutor’s Office against former PACE Vice President and honorary head of the European People's Party (EPP) faction in PACE, Italian MP Luca Volontè, under which the latter continuously received 2 mln 400,000 euro from Aliyev’s administration and Azerbaijani government to defend the interests of the Azerbaijan. This is a fact regarding which a criminal case is underway,” Zohrabyan said.
In her words, Agramunt rudely turned off both her and Naira Karapetyan’s microphones, saying that they have no right to speak about that case unless the final decision of the court is available.
“This is a gross violation of PACE regulation, something which PACE’s various European deputies also recorded, telling us that it was unprecedented for the PACE President to violate the regulation in such a gross manner, especially when we were speaking during the free debates.
However for some reason Agramunt never interrupted the speech of Azerbaijani MP Rafig Huseynov, who raised nonsensical accusations and noted that journalists were killed for the freedom of speech in Armenia. The Azerbaijani MP specifically referred to Mikayel Danielyan, who, according to him, was killed for the freedom of speech, whereas the former indeed died from heart attack,” Zohrabyan stressed.
“And when I responded to Huseynov that I advise him to consult a psychiatrist, this sent Agramunt into absolute frenzy and he began shouting form tribune that I had no right to offend the Deputy and he is turning off my microphone,” the Armenian MP said.
Zohrabyan went on with her speech on Luca Volontè and corruption practices in PACE when Agramunt for the second time turned off the Armenian MP’s microphone, saying that he is depriving her of the right to speak.
“I responded from my seat that he is depriving me of the right to speak because he is also Azerbaijan’s and Aliyev’s prominent lobbyist like Volontè and he doesn’t feel comfortable about the announcements on shameful corruption, since he is also involved in the corruption mechanisms.
My colleague Mikayel Melkumyan interrupted me at that point, noting that Agramunt is grossly violating the regulation, depriving an independent deputy of the right to speak,” the Armenian MP said.
She also noted that all this has been recorded - all the video materials are available - and she will personally turn to PACE going through all the processes. “I’ll launch a legal process against Agramunt, since the topic of deputies’ speeches has never been regulated in the history of PACE.”
I can understand the bad situation Agramunt has found himself in, since the Ukrainian delegation is also launching a process against him, this time accusing him of being bribed by Russia. I can understand his emotional state and that the word ‘corruption’ throws him into concussions, but that doesn’t give him a right to turn off the microphone of our delegation member.”
