During the free debate at the end of the PACE winter session on Friday, Deputy Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly (NA) and PACE, Hermine Naghdalyan, who is the head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, handed over her speech to PACE Secretariat.

In her speech, Naghdalyan expressed concern over the condition of the Turkish democratic institutions, which are among the “hot”topics of PACE.

“Unfortunately, the opinions expressed by our colleagues during the previous discussions have not been taken into account and the proposals on resuming the monitoring procedure in Turkey were denied, whereas this could have had a preventive impact against the gross violations of democratic freedoms in the country,” she stressed, adding that Turkey is the immediate neighbor of Armenia, and the latter thus has reasons to get concerned.

Referring to the anti-democratic conduct of the Turkish leadership in the relations with neighbors and the fact of keeping the border with Armenia closed for 25 years in neglect of the international obligations taken up, Ms Naghdalyan described such a policy as absurd against the backdrop of the current world “without borders.”

“What is going on in modern Turkey? Under the pretence of the Parallel state—as the Turkish call the Gülen movement—searches and neutralization, as well as mass arrests are underway. I think you understand what threatens the people arrested and sacked in that environment. Currently, eleven deputies are arrested and given lengthy sentences,” she noted, expressing concern over the fates of media representatives and private journalists.

In this context, Ms Naghdalyan recalled the vivid manifestation of violating the freedom of speech and immunity of opposition deputies, when an Armenian deputy was deprived of the right to attend three sessions only for uttering the words “Armenian Genocide”and urging to face the past.

“Everything going on in Turkey in respect of the national minorities, awakening of nationalism, establishment of tyranny and existence between war and peace, make us recall the events which took place 100 years ago, when the Armenians and other Christians were the victims. Now the Kurds are the victims.

The demands of the EU to Turkey—respect for democratic values, national minorities and human rights—are not absurd at all. What is absurd is the attitude of the Turkish authorities to those demands,” the Deputy Speaker concluded, urging PACE to reconsider the proposal on resuming the monitoring process in Turkey, which various European delegates joined.