Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

A recent decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has sparked disappointment by the Azerbaijani government and people, showing double standards towards the country.

Members of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE have strongly protested and condemned a resolution with unfounded accusations, which shows the organization' biased attitude toward Azerbaijan.

The MPs expected the European parliamentarians to be primarily focused to the long-standing Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during its summer session.

However, PACE, following its plans, focused on completely different matter during the discussions.

The organization preferred to ignore the Nagorno- Karabakh conflict, which resulted in the occupation of Azerbaijan’s internationally-recognized territories by Armenia and displacement of over a million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons from their native lands.

Instead, PACE adopted a resolution on “the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan” based on a report by Pedro Agramunt and Tadeusz Iwinski by 140 votes in favor and 13 against, condemning what it called “the crackdown on human rights in Azerbaijan.”

The Azerbaijani delegation was frustrated by the fact that the parliamentarians have chosen to forget about the rights of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs that have been violated by Armenia.

During the sessions, Azerbaijani MPs called on the organization to treat the issue of refugees and internally displaced persons with particular interest.

Samad Seyidov, an Azerbaijani MP and head of Azerbaijani delegation said Azerbaijan has more than one million refugees and internally displaced persons and the country on its own copes with this problem.

“These people are still waiting for the liberation of occupied Azerbaijani lands by Armenia. I believe that the Council of Europe should be interested in objective information on the subject,” Seyidov said.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor, causing a lengthy war in the early 1990s.

This is a glaring example of the massive violations of the rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from their native lands by Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

Azerbaijani MPs also urged PACE to impose sanctions against Armenia, who continues the occupation of Azerbaijani territories in defiance with international law.

PACE representatives even ignored the decision of European Court of Human Rights on the case of ‘Chiragov and others against Armenia’, adopted on June 16.

The European Court of Human Rights reaffirmed Armenia’s responsibility in the occupation of Azerbaijani territories. The court ruled in favor of the applicants, recognizing Armenia’s continuing violations of a number of their rights under the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

In addition, during the discussions at PACE sessions, a group of pro-Armenian MPs attempted to exclude a provision regarding the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia from the resolution.

The proposed changes were adopted by the fifth attempt. As a result, the text of the resolution included the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Seyidov, who assessed PACE’s resolution as biased document, said it is wrong to present Azerbaijan as a country that violates human rights.

"It is enough. Presenting of Azerbaijan as a country with human rights violations is wrong. You are talking here about the people detained in Azerbaijan. Why do you not talk about the rights of the people killed on the line of contact? You are calling on us to fulfill the obligations that we have undertaken. If you are working correctly, why can't the countries, accusing Azerbaijan, ensure the observance of human rights in their own countries? Think about yourself before blaming Azerbaijan," Seyidov said.

PACE’s decision has disappointed Azerbaijani authorities.

Assessing this step as a manifestation of double standards towards the country, Novruz Mammadov, the deputy head of the Azerbaijani presidential administration and chief of the administration’s foreign relations department said the position of the Council of Europe towards Azerbaijan puts into question the country's membership in the organization.

“Along with some bodies of the European Union, PACE also demonstrates that international law is of no significance. The principle of ‘we want everything our way’ prevails. The position of these bodies on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a vivid example. This is another example of double standards. Regrettably, those in Europe still fail to realize where such policy leads and what the outcome could be,” Mammadov said.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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