ArmInfo. Artsakh Ombudsman Artak Beglaryan, as part of a working visit to Strasbourg, held a series of bilateral meetings with various dignitaries of the Council of Europe.
As ArmInfo was informed in the press service of the Artsakh Ombudsman, Beglaryan at the meetings spoke about the situation with the protection of human rights in Artsakh, as well as the problems and challenges caused by the conflict and unrecognized status.
Beglaryan at a meeting with the co-Rapporteur of the PACE Monitoring Commission for Azerbaijan Stefan Schennach told about the state of human rights in Artsakh, the existing problems, the current contacts of his office with European structures and the prospects for interaction. Considering the fact that Schennach is a PACE co-rapporteur for Azerbaijan, the Artsakh Ombudsman touched upon violations of Azerbaijan and sounding threats. He paid special attention to the Armenian-phobic policy pursued in Azerbaijan at the state level, presenting reports of the Artsakh office of the defender of human rights regarding offenses during the four-day April 2016 war and Armenian-phobia. Beglaryan emphasized that Armenophobia was laid in the foundation of systematic violations by Azerbaijan of the rights of Armenians, which is also a serious threat to the security and human rights of the entire region. Beglaryan met also with Killion Munyama, the First Vice-Chairperson of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, as well as, the Rapporteur on Internally Displaced Persons. He presented the issues of refugees and internally displaced persons living in Artsakh, considering the absolute ignoring of them by the international community as inadmissible.
The Ombudsman had meetings with some other PACE members and officials of independent bodies. At all the meetings the Council of Europe officials demonstrated interests in the current situation and issues of the Artsakh people human rights protection, recognizing the urgent necessity of ensuring international engagement of unrecognized states.