Italian senator criticizes colleague for presenting Khojaly events in biased and pro-Azerbaijani manner

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. Italian senator Maria Rizzotti (member of friendship group with Azerbaijan) gave a speech on February 21 touching the Khojaly events and expressing entirely pro-Azerbaijani ideas urging to declare February 26 “remembrance day of Khojaly genocide” at the Senate.

Rizzotti’s speech receives no support from the Senate. The next day another Senator AldoDi Biagio reacted to Rizzotti’s speech with criticism, assessing it as one-sided and based only on Azerbaijani disinformation.

The senator mentioned in his speech that speaking about the Khojaly events and assessing it as “genocide” means to accept the biased opinion that it properly coordinated by the Baku authorities but is denied by facts. “There is no reference to the fact that the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh reaffirmed their right to self-determination through referendum”, the Italian senator said. AldoDi Biagio also noted that his colleague bypassed in her speech the provocations and Armenafobia of Baku authorities, which hamper the OSCE Minsk Group brokered peace process.

“Ignoring all these means to ignore facts and spread partial information which is pregnant with the risk of being taken for the truth, since the issue has been raised in this reputable establishment of the Senate of the Republic, and this is a very serious country”, Senator AldoDi Biagio concluded.

Interestingly, on February 23 the final minutes of the Senate’s session did not contain the part of Maria Rizzotti’s speech proposing to declare February 26 as a remembrance day. The minutes of the speeches are prepared by the instructions of the respective senators.