UPDATED: What did the Russian delegates to the PACE vote against?

UPDATED: The Fact Investigation Platform apologizes to readers for previously contained errors in the article. Initially, the PACE Bureau agreed to put the issue of Armenian prisoners of war to a vote as part of a package of issues, but the issue was put to a separate vote due to the motion submitted by the representative of Azerbaijan Samad Seyidov. The members of the Russian delegation voting against or abstained from voting on this issue.

The April 19 vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is being actively discussed on social media. As a result of the vote, the issue of “Armenian prisoners of war, other captives and displaced persons” in Azerbaijan was included in the agenda of the plenary session.

In particular, according to a number of posts on social networks, the representatives of Russia also voted against including the issue in the agenda. Among those who make this assertion is also the leader of the “For Armenia” Party, independent deputy of the National Assembly Arman Babajanyan.

“It is noteworthy that, along with Turks and Azerbaijanis, several members of the delegation of Russia to the PACE – Russia being the strategic ally of Armenia – voted against including the issue of Armenian captives and displaced persons in the agenda of the PACE plenary session,” Babajanyan wrote on his Facebook page.

The Fact Investigation Platform fact-checked these assertions, as well as claims about the voting results.

Thus, the agenda of the PACE plenary session was adopted not based on separate issues, but in two packages: urgent debate and current affairs debate. The issue of Armenian prisoners of war was included in the package of current affairs debate, along with three other issues, one of them being “Russian threat to the pursuit of peace in Europe.” The agenda of current affairs debate is highlighted in the picture.

Before putting the package of issues to a vote, the representative of Azerbaijan Samad Seyidov addressed the chair of the session, asking to vote separately on the issue of including the issue of the Armenian prisoners of war on the agenda. See below the discussion of the issue related to the Armenian captives and the speech of the representative of Azerbaijan.

The issue was included on the agenda of the current affairs debate at the plenary session with 93 votes in favor, 21 against and 18 abstentions. Among the delegates who voted against are five representatives of Russia, the other seven abstained.

Thus, the claim that the Russian representatives in the PACE voted against holding a current affairs debate on the issue of Armenian captives is true, as the issue was previously included as part of a package of issues, but was put to a separate vote at the suggestion of the Azeri MP.

Ani Avetisyan