STRASBOURG. - It is time for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to finally refer to such a shameful and disgraceful phenomenon as Azerbaijan’s “black list,” which currently includes 600 personae non grata, of which 180 are journalists who visited Nagorno-Karabakh for fulfilling their professional duties.

Member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Naira Zohrabyan, said the aforementioned at the plenary session of PACE on Monday, referring to the arrest of Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin in Belarus and his possible extradition to Azerbaijan.

In her speech, Zohrabyan said the following.

“Dear colleagues,

Before the approval of our agenda, I demand that we refer to an unprecedented phenomenon, especially considering that one of the key issues on the agenda of this session is the protection of journalists and freedom of speech. I mean the arrest of blogger Alexader Lapshin in Belarus.  I would like to recall that Lapshin, who has a dual citizenship —that of Russia and Israel—was arrested in Minsk upon the order of Azerbaijani President Aliyev for visiting the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR/Artsakh) in 2011 and 2012 for the purpose of conducting a journalistic investigation. I think it is time for PACE to finally refer to such a shameful and disgraceful phenomenon as Azerbaijan’s “black list,” which currently includes 600 personae non grata, of which 180 are journalists and professionals, who visited Nagorno-Karabakh for carrying out their professional activities.

Dear colleagues,

I would like to ask you a simple question: How many thousand people must be added to Azerbaijan's “black list” for the Assembly to eventually refer to it? How many journalists and mass media representatives should be put on the wanted list by Interpol upon the demand of Azerbaijan for visiting the NKR for us to understand that our silence is reprehensible? It is time for our organization to finally wake up from its lethargic sleep and respond to this shameful policy of Azerbaijan aimed against the freedom of speech, conscience and press.

And it is at least puzzling that unlike various international journalist organizations, the Platform for the Protection of Journalism of the Council of Europe in no way responded to Lapshin’s arrest and the demand for his extradition. The freedom of press, speech and conscience is an absolute value and no country has the right to hinder and ban journalists from fulfilling their professional duties.

I urge our parliament, as well as the European Commissioner for Human Rights to urgently respond to Alexander Lapshin’s case and not allow extraditing him to Azerbaijan.”