YEREVAN, OCTOBER 11, ARMENPRESS. Swedish delegate at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Boriana Aberg urged Azerbaijan to withdraw its armed forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia.

During the PACE autumn session the Swedish lawmaker delivered remarks at the current affairs debate on military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan, including strikes against settlements and civilian infrastructures. 

“A few days ago I received a video showing a horrible execution of a woman, an Armenian prisoner of war. I am still haunted by these atrocious scenes and the inhumane cruelty taking place. It's not the only video where such dreadful evil occurs”, she said. “Since the large scale military aggression against the territorial integrity of Armenia launched by the armed forces of Azerbaijan, numerous videos have been publicized by Azerbaijani users on social media. These videos demonstrate war crimes, horrible scenes of the killing of Armenian prisoners of war, the torture of Armenian servicemen, including women, and the desecration of human corpses”, the PACE lawmaker said.

According to Aberg, the reaction from the international community was unequivocal. “Our position is clear: those responsible for war crimes must be held to account”, she stated.

Boriana Aberg said that the situation in the South Caucasus remains very tense and alarming. “We have a situation where one member State of this organization attacks another member State. Any ignorance from us will enable new violence, new atrocities.

On 13 September, we witnessed aggression against Armenia, which resulted in the ongoing occupation of the sovereign territories of Armenia, horrendous sufferings, human losses on both sides, and a large scale destruction of civilian infrastructure in Armenia”, she said recalling the recent statement of European Commission Vice-President Josep Borrell, who said that the fact of the matter is that Azerbaijan has bombarded and occupied part of Armenian territory, adding that Azerbaijani forces must be withdrawn from those border areas.

“We urge Azerbaijan to withdraw its armed forces from the sovereign territory of Armenia and to return to positions held prior to this escalation.

We call on Azerbaijan to cease any action that could further aggravate the already terrible situation on the ground”, Boriana Aberg said.