Baku, Azerbaijan, April 27
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
The groundless allegations of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), corruption claims, attacks and information "shots" are surely politicized, expert Fikret Sadikhov told Trend on April 27.
He made the remarks commenting on the so-called anti-corruption report of the PACE.
Sadikhov stressed that such a report should be supported by figures and facts and be based on specific investigations.
"Surely, we are not talking about individual MPs, but about the attitude to the country and its image, which certain circles want to spoil by throwing an additional portion of negative information. This information is aimed at discrediting Azerbaijan's image, creating a negative image of the country in world politics and in relations with other states," Sadikhov said.
He said that the Azerbaijani parliamentarians at the PACE should give a decent response to such attacks.
"Professionally trained members of the Azerbaijani Parliament represent the country at the PACE and they have already spoken out. I think they will demand concrete facts on the sidelines, because such unfounded statements cannot serve as ground for such serious accusations," Sadikhov said.
Answering the question on expediency of reviewing the relations with PACE, the expert noted that although this organization has not helped Azerbaijan during the country's 17-year membership, there is no need to rush to leave it as this will hardly help solve the current situation.
"Earlier a resolution was adopted on supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, but the document is still "in the air". I did not see further development of the topic so that the document would be followed by concrete steps that would help resolve this issue and make accusations against the aggressor country - Armenia," Sadikhov said.
He reminded that Azerbaijan is a member of many international structures and before taking radical steps it is necessary to carefully determine the extent of claims and then think about reviewing relations with this structure without leaving it.
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