Motion for a resolution | Doc. 12227 | 28 April 2010

Armenia's determination to become a monoethnic State and implement a policy against its national minorities

Signatories: Mr Rafael HUSEYNOV, Azerbaijan, ALDE ; Mr Aydin ABBASOV, Azerbaijan, SOC ; Ms Marieluise BECK, Germany, ALDE ; Mr József BERÉNYI, Slovak Republic ; Mr Per DALGAARD, Denmark, EDG ; Mr Arcadio DÍAZ TEJERA, Spain, SOC ; Mr Miljenko DORIĆ, Croatia, ALDE ; Mr Renato FARINA, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Aristophanes GEORGIOU, Cyprus, UEL ; Mr Martin GRAF, Austria, NR ; Mr Johannes HÜBNER, Austria, NR ; Mr Tom KOENIGS, Germany, ALDE ; Mr Göran LINDBLAD, Sweden, EPP/CD ; Mr Bernard MARQUET, Monaco, ALDE ; Ms Elsa PAPADIMITRIOU, Greece, EPP/CD ; Mr Giacomo SANTINI, Italy, EPP/CD ; Mr Fidias SARIKAS, Cyprus, SOC ; Mr Kimmo SASI, Finland, EPP/CD ; Mr Yevgeniy SUSLOV, Ukraine, EPP/CD ; Mr Egidijus VAREIKIS, Lithuania, EPP/CD

This motion has not been discussed in the Assembly and commits only those who have signed it.

During its 10-year membership of the Council of Europe, one of the major anti-democratic shortcomings which has not been corrected but contrarily deepened by Armenia is a policy of demonstrative persecution aimed at turning the country into a monoethnic state. During recent decades, numerous national minorities such as Russian, Azerbaijani, Greek, Polish, Assyrian, Malaccan, Ukrainian, Jew, Belarusian and German were gradually removed from the country. Nowadays, 42 000 Kurds, the biggest national minority, are faced with very serious danger. Following the recent beheading of four Kurds by Armenians in Yerevan, the Federation of the Yezids of Kurdistan spread a statement to the world’s information agencies notifying them that the above-mentioned bloody murders had political motivation and were part of the policy of persecution and isolation carried out against Kurds. Hundreds of Kurds held a meeting in front of the Armenian embassy in Tbilisi on 20 April 2010 as a protest against the above-mentioned policy.

Taking the above-mentioned into consideration, the Assembly finds expedient to have a report with a recommendation for investigation into the situation of national minorities in Armenia.