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A session of the Council of Europe (CoE) in Strasbourg has discussed Azerbaijan and Armenia's performance of their commitments to peaceful regulation of the Qarabag conflict. Participating in the session were CoE Secretary General Walter Shvimmer, permanent representatives of the member states, OSCE Minisk Group co-chairmen, and Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents' special envoys for the settlement of the Qarabag conflict Araz Azimov and Tatul Markaryan.

At their own initiative, the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen first took the floor to report to the meeting about their activities, according to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry. However, their speeches were superficial as the co-chairmen focused on the forthcoming presidential elections in Azerbaijan and Armenia. Their answers to questions of the participants were not concrete, which triggered dissatisfaction. Probably, that is why the OSCE Minsk group co-chairmen were not willing to listen to speeches by special envoys of the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents and left the meeting.

Commenting on the discussions held at the Council of Europe, the spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Matin Mirza, indicated that Azerbaijan supported this kind of discussions. To participate in such debates the parties are required to provide reliable information, which meets our interests. Leaflets were handed to the participants to provide them with detailed information about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict before the meeting took start. 60 diplomats attended the debates between Araz Azimov and Tatul Markaryan conducted upon the completion of the discussions. It is worthy of note that when asking “how the Armenian side sees a peaceful solution to the conflict”, the Azerbaijani diplomat has received no answer from his Armenian counterpart.