BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 30
Trend:
In its resolution on alleged political prisoners in Azerbaijan, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) appreciated Azerbaijan’s cooperation with its speakers, Member of the Russian delegation to PACE, head of the State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs Leonid Slutsky told reporters.
Slutsky was commenting on the PACE resolution “Reported cases of political prisoners in Azerbaijan” adopted on Jan. 30, Trend reports.
"The resolution on political prisoners in Azerbaijan is incomparable with those [documents] that have been submitted on this topic previously," the politician said. "As a result of the coordinated, systemic and professional work of the delegation of the Azerbaijani parliament, headed by Samad Seyidov, it was possible to qualitatively reduce the degree of tension against Baku in PACE."
"Today, the Azerbaijani delegation has more than ever achieved integration into PACE’s functional architecture over the years of accession to the Council of Europe," Slutsky added. “This clearly affected the cooperation with the PACE rapporteur on the resolution related to political prisoners. But I must say that the resolution turned out to be critical. It contains certain information that isn't true.”
"There are no political prisoners in Azerbaijan," Slutsky emphasized. "We have stated this repeatedly and will state this in PACE and beyond it. But at the same time, we must pay tribute to the fact that the draft resolution that was adopted on Jan. 30, in fact, positively assesses the work of the Azerbaijani leadership and parliament in cooperation with the Council of Europe."
"This is the leitmotif of the cooperation of the Azerbaijani delegation with PACE and the preparation of various cases regarding Azerbaijan, rather than mythical political prisoners," the politician said.
Slutsky also congratulated Azerbaijani delegation on excellent work.