Azerbaijan suspends engagement, participation to Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe

By Ramin Abdullayev

STRASBOURG (AA) - Azerbaijan on Wednesday announced that it suspended its engagement with and participation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) indefinitely.

During a winter session of the assembly, Samad Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation in PACE, said that the body did not support Azerbaijan's arguments during the Armenian occupation of the Karabakh region, while also ignoring Yerevan's policy of "ethnic cleansing."

Expressing that Azerbaijan's delegation has been bringing up the consequences of the Armenian occupation for nearly 20 years, Seyidov said that they have been told during this time that PACE is not the right format to discuss issues related to the conflict.

"After Azerbaijan’s historic victory over the aggression, the occupation and the violent separatism, and the restoration of its territorial integrity and sovereignty, we face an orchestrated smear campaign to denigrate Azerbaijan, and cast shadow on its achievement to restore the justice," Seyidov further said.

Seyidov also said they are facing a smear campaign organized against them, and that this situation reveals “hypocrisy,” adding that some members of PACE used it for their own purposes, thus abusing its basic principles.

"Political corruption, discrimination, ethnic and religious hatred, double standards, arrogance, chauvinism have become prevailing practice in the PACE," the Azerbaijani representative said.

"Nobody in the world, including those sitting in this hall can speak with Azerbaijan in the language of threat and blackmailing ... In the face of current unbearable atmosphere of racism, Azerbaijanophobia and Islamophobia in the PACE, the delegation of Azerbaijan decides to cease its engagement with and presence at the PACE until further notice," he concluded.

* Writing by Burc Eruygur in Istanbul