Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan resolutely rejects the Article 32 of the European Parliament resolution regarding the presidential election, vice President of Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (PA) said on November 2.

"Today I give a difficult, but important message to you and the European Parliament," Elkhan Suleymanov said in a statement at a meeting of the Euronest PA Bureau.

"We are in a delicate situation, and, unfortunately, we have to react to a series of unprecedented attacks against Azerbaijan by an organization that we saw as a place for friendship, confidence, and cooperation," Suleymanov, who is also the head of the Azerbaijani delegation in the EP, said

"The observation missions of the European Parliament, PACE, OSCE PA, and others -except for OSCE/ODIHR- evaluated the elections as free, transparent, fair and in accordance with the OSCE and CoE standards. OSCE Chairman-in-Office supported the evaluation of these institutions," the statement read.

Suleymanov noted that in Article 32 of the resolution on European Neighborhood Policy adopted on October 23, 2013, the European Parliament, referring to the results of one of the OSCE bureaus--OSCE/ODIHR, stated that the October 9 presidential elections in Azerbaijan did not meet the OSCE standards. Thus it demonstrated disrespect to positive evaluation of its own observation mission .

"The question then arises: What is the real position of the European Parliament? Does it want to cooperate with Azerbaijan and promote peace and stability in the South Caucasus? Does it accept its reports and delegations?! What is the aim of such abnormal position against its partner, when it ignores it own official observation mission, something that is not a common practice for the European Parliament and other international organizations? " the statement said.

"I would like to note that we cannot accept baseless attacks, like the ones made by Leonidas Donskis (ALDE, Lithuania), Ulrike Lunacek (Greens, Austria), Ana Gomes (S&D, Portugal), and Gerben Jan Gerbrandy; a group of MEPs, who organized campaigns against Azerbaijan in the European Parliament, even before the elections, by stating that there would be problems regarding the elections. This is our message to the European Parliament: improve the state of your 'house' before attacking others. We criticize the current situation of the European Parliament as an international institution."

Suleymanov went on to note that Azerbaijan had repeatedly addressed the leadership of the Euronest PA, expressing its objection to the Armenian chairmanship until peace was established, stating that otherwise it would stop its activity in the Eastern Partnership community of the Euronest PA during Armenia's presidency.

Suleymanov also said that Azerbaijan had to think about the format of any further cooperation with the Euronest PA until the reasons behind this Article were investigated and appropriate measures were taken.

He also said that Azerbaijan will stop its activity in the Euronest PA during the Armenian chairmanship in the organization.

Suleymanov left the Bureau meeting as an act of protest against the Article 32 of the European Parliament resolution.

Earlier Suleymanov appealed to international organizations that the Azerbaijani delegation would suspend its activity in the Euronest PA, a parliamentary forum that promotes political association and further economic integration between the European Union and the Eastern European partners.

The Foreign Ministry's statement issued on the October 9 election read that long-term and short-term election observation was conducted by more than 53,000 observers, including 1,300 international observers, invited by Azerbaijan's government and parliament.

They represented 100 countries and 50 international and non-governmental organizations.