1 / 1

The Member of the Armenian Delegation to PACE Naira Zohrabyan delivered a speech at PACE Autumn Session. The speech is given below:

“Dear Colleagues, I think that we are simply obliged to discuss a problem which long ago has already decayed our structure like plague. At least in the last two years there has been no session, during which we don’t speak about the collision of interests, the lobbying and already established fact - corruption. Numerous facts have been presented, including also by the international investigating different organisations that some CoE member states buy the MPs with packages in our structure, who every month receive serious sums from their donor countries, have property and business in the mentioned countries, and use our structure for serving the political interests of their donor country. Immediately after PACE June Session the law enforcement bodies of Italy filed criminal case against PACE former Vice President, Honourary President of the EPP Group Luka Volonte for receiving about 2mln 400.000 USD bribe from Azerbaijan’s Government in 2012-2014, for which Volonte was obliged to fail the Resolutions opposing the interests of Baku and particularly, Strasser’s Resolution on Azerbaijan’s political prisoners. During the examination the Prosecutor’s Office of Milan disclosed the whole chain, through which Aliyev’s Government have transferred money to Volonte and to his Group for serving the interests of Baku in PACE through many years. The money designed for bribing Volonte was given from the account of BAK-TELECOM Company, and the money was transferred through the branch of the Danish Dansk-Bank functioning in Estonia. Besides, the law enforcement bodies of Milan also revealed that Volonte had received bribe for many times from the member of the Azerbaijani Delegation Elhan Suleymanov and a number of other Azerbaijani politicians.

Dear Colleagues, you know quite well that Luka Volonte has not been the only MP bribed by Azerbaijan. Here, at this moment are sitting about two dozens of MPs, who directly serve the Azerbaijani interest, surely not out of brotherly love towards Aliyev. It is not also a secret that the current President of our Assembly Pedro Agramunt also is the sworn advocate for the interests of Baku: out of Platonic love towards Aliyev, or for other reason, that I leave to your judgment. By the way, during these days the Ukrainian Delegation added one more “sin” to Agramunt’s “sins,” accusing him also in being the lobbyist of Russia.

Dear Colleagues, I hope that in future law enforcement bodies of several countries also, as in case of Italy, will file criminal cases against PACE several MPs, who through many years have been fed from the Azerbaijani oil vein. And meanwhile there is a little hope to save the face of our structure, let us make a matter of public discussion the problem of corruption schemes, which have taken serious roots, and as a first step let us apply to the national parliaments to call back the corrupted MPs from our Assembly.”