Deputy Speaker of the RA NA, and head of the RA NA delegation to the PACE, Ruben Rubinyan, gave a speech at the PACE autumn session. Ruben Rubinyan noted.

"Thank you, Madam President. Let me start by thanking all the previous speakers, especially Mr. Gavan, for presenting the truth and establishing the facts.

Indeed, my country, my democratic country, has recently been attacked by its authoritarian neighbor. The attack was utterly groundless and unjustified. Peaceful residents were killed. Settlements and civil infrastructures were damaged. Mr. Gavan laid it all out.

Why did this happen? It happened because the aggressor had no previous convictions. During the last session here, I was talking about another Azerbaijani invasion of the sovereign territory of Armenia, which took place in 2021. I was talking about the Armenian war prisoners still held in Azerbaijan. They are still kept there. Now, a few months later, we have new aggression, a new occupation, and new prisoners of war; some of them have been killed, and there is footage showing that the Azerbaijanis executed them immediately after their capture. All this happened because Azerbaijanis were acquitted before.

Dear colleagues, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation, Samad Seidov, will speak after me. He will most likely appeal to the old Azerbaijani tradition of denial, saying that Azerbaijani aggression did not happen. He is going to say that Mr. Gavan, Mrs. Aberg, and other speakers are wrong, there is no invasion of Armenian territory, but Armenia deserved it. Why? Because that is his job. Mr. Samad Seidov's job here is to justify the actions of his authoritarian government and the crimes.

Based on the need to talk about peace in this organization, I would like to inform you that PACE President Mr. Cox invited Mr. Seidov and me to meet in Paris within the framework of the Monitoring Commission session. That meeting was scheduled for September 15. Why didn't it happen? For a straightforward reason. Azerbaijan attacked my country two days before the meeting, and I did not go to Paris.

Dear colleagues, it is possible to talk about peace when your colleagues want to talk about peace. It is impossible to speak of peace while they are shooting at you or occupying your territory. It's impossible:

I understand that many of our friends do not want to take sides regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It isn't straightforward. I see:

But this is different. This is the case that an authoritarian government attacks its democratic neighbor and occupies its territory; it must be condemned. Azerbaijani troops should leave Armenian territory immediately, and Armenian prisoners of war should be released."