YEREVAN, JUNE 9, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament of Armenia Alen Simonyan, who is in Strasbourg on a working visit, met today with Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Despina Chatzivassiliou-Tsovilis, the Parliament’s press service said.

The Speaker highly valued the key role of the Council of Europe and the PACE and the productive continuation of their activity as a cornerstone of democratic security, guarantor of human rights and rule of law, a platform for real pluralism and effective dialogue.

The sides discussed the PACE role in strengthening democracy in Armenia, particularly touching upon the works of the co-rapporteurs of the Monitoring Committee.

The Speaker of Parliament said there are many unresolved issues after the 44-day war, one of the most urgent of which is the issue of the immediate repatriation of Armenian prisoners of war and other persons held in Azerbaijan.

He said that this attempt of solving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict by force opposes the commitment of Azerbaijan’s membership to the CoE on settling the conflict exclusively peacefully.

According to the Armenian Speaker of Parliament, PACE should be consistent with its resolution on the Humanitarian consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan/Nagorno Karabakh conflict, adopted on September 27, 2021.

He once again affirmed the commitment of Armenia to achieve peace and make real efforts in this direction, which could not be said about the Azerbaijani authorities who are still running an anti-Armenian and militaristic policy against Armenia.