‘Hotbeds of Racism, Xenophobia Still Exist in Council of Europe’: Sargsyan at PACE

The most important issue for us remains the peaceful and just resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, addressing the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg Wednesday.

“Negotiations are conducted in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. We are grateful to the co-chair states for their efforts.  Importantly, the presidents of those states are personally engaged in the resolution process. It does, undoubtedly, inspire great hope.

“I believe you would agree that the most important current and potential contribution of the Council of Europe to this process is the promotion of tolerance. To this end, we note with pain and concern that hotbeds of racism and xenophobia still exist in the territory of the Council of Europe,” he said.

According to the Armenian leader, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance, in its recent regular report on Azerbaijan, reconfirmed the extreme level of Armenophobia and racism prevailing in that country.

“We regret this fact, because it is hard to imagine such a situation in a member state of the Council of Europe. We regret, because we clearly understand that the poison of intolerance strikes most heavily the society bearing such poison. It also troubles us because: Azerbaijan is our immediate neighbor, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains unresolved in our neighborhood, and we attach importance to the necessity of progressing in the process of resolving the conflict,” he said.