Azerbaijan must be held responsible for ethnic cleansing in  Nagorno-Karabakh 

ArmInfo. Azerbaijan's aggressive actions towards Nagorno- Karabakh have led to a massive human rights crisis. The mass expulsion of more than 100 thousand Armenians from their homes is nothing less than ethnic cleansing, Armenia's Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Arman Khachatryan stated at discussions in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on the humanitarian situation resulting from  the policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh.

The Azerbaijanis' claims that these people left voluntarily do not  stand up to criticism. In a resolution adopted on October 12, PACE  also confirmed that almost the entire Armenian population of the  region left their historical homeland due to the real threat of  physical destruction, the policy of hatred towards Armenians in  Azerbaijan and the lack of trust. Azerbaijan must be held accountable  for ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, illegal use of force and,  accordingly, actions contrary to the CoE charter and membership  obligations, Mr Khachatryan said. 

CE Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric presented to the  Committee of Ministers the deyails of her meeting with Armenia's  Premier Nikol Pashinyan.

In this regard, Arman Khachatryan highly appreciated the holding of  the meeting, which provided a good opportunity to discuss the  humanitarian situation that has arisen as a result of the forced  displacement of the Armenian population from Nagorno-Karabakh, and  subsequent steps of support from the international community,  including the Council of Europe, in solving existing problems.

With the participation of PACE President Tiny Kox discussed were the  resolution "Humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh" approved at  the autumn session of PACE and the consultation of the same name were  discussed. Khachatryan presented the main provisions of the  resolution to the Committee of Ministers, noting the importance of  consistent steps by the Committee of Ministers following the PACE  consultations.