Details added (first version posted on 17:56)
Baku, Azerbaijan, May 16
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
Some forces, including the Armenian lobby, are trying to detach Azerbaijan from the Council of Europe, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliamentary Committee for International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations, Head of the Azerbaijani Delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov said in Baku May 16.
Seyidov added that these forces will be unable to influence Azerbaijan’s activity in the Council of Europe.
“Armenia and the forces supporting it are at a disadvantage in relation to Azerbaijan on international arena and therefore they resort to other tactics,” he said.
"We raise questions about the realities of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, include the issue of Armenia's occupation policy to the agenda, stress the importance of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and international laws, which create difficulties for Armenia," Seyidov added.
“By imposing sanctions on the Azerbaijani delegation, they think to create negative image of Azerbaijan,” he said. “Not only the Armenian lobby, but also the forces that do not want the development of Azerbaijan play a role here."
Seyidov added that Azerbaijan has very good relations with Europe, but the forces, which are not interested in such relations want to counteract that.
The head of the Azerbaijani delegation stressed that Azerbaijan will not leave PACE and will spread the realities of Azerbaijan via PACE.
Following the hearings in Paris on May 15, the PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure decided that sanctions should apply to four PACE members Pedro Agramunt (Spain) for a period of 10 years, Cezar Florin Preda (Romania), Samad Seyidov (Azerbaijan) and Jordi Xuclà (Spain) for a period of two years.
All four, while remaining members of the Assembly with the right to speak, will be banned during these periods from acting as rapporteurs or election observers, and cannot be chairs or vice-chairs of any committees or sub-committees, or stand for election as president of the Assembly.
They will be unable to represent the Assembly or its committees at any third-party events.