BAKU, Azerbaijan, January 23. The Azerbaijani delegation's credentials were not granted at the first meeting of the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), which began today, Trend reports.
The motion of German MP Frank Schwaben to refuse to approve the credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation was supported and sent to the Monitoring Committee for a decision.
The Azerbaijani delegation attended today's discussions but had limited voting privileges. The main reason claimed was that the Azerbaijani side "did not authorize in 2023 a visit to the Lachin corridor and monitoring of the situation in Karabakh, as well as a meeting with Azerbaijani 'political prisoners'".
The monitoring committee must make a decision within 24 hours.
Although the German MP and his colleagues who backed this move attempted to explain the situation using human rights, it is evident that this has nothing to do with human rights.
The incident is an attempt to exact retribution on Azerbaijan, which has regained its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The fact that after 30 years of discussions on various platforms, including at the level of PACE, and resolutions that remained only on paper, Azerbaijan independently ensured its territorial integrity and sovereignty did not sit well with many countries and international organizations, including the Council of Europe and PACE. They believe Baku should be penalized for actions taken against their will. However, they forget that for Azerbaijan, not only the loss of votes in PACE but also the structure itself is no longer important. Azerbaijan became a member of the Council of Europe in the hopes of finding a settlement to the Karabakh conflict.
However, for many years, this structure has not taken any measures against the fact of Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan and its occupation of the country's territories and has been content with only a few statements that have no legal weight. Even though PACE adopted several resolutions supporting the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and calling on Armenia to leave the occupied territories, no steps were taken to implement them.
PACE turned a blind eye to the fact that for many years one member country of this organization, Armenia, kept under occupation the territory of another member country, Azerbaijan, and did not even think about limiting the voting rights of the aggressor state.
The Karabakh conflict has already been solved. Azerbaijan does not need the Council of Europe, which currently has no authority in Europe.
Depending on the decision that PACE will take, an adequate step will be necessary. If PACE decides to refuse to confirm the powers of the Azerbaijani delegation and limit its voting rights, it will be advisable for the Azerbaijani delegation to stop its activity in this organization.
In addition, the withdrawal of Azerbaijan from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights may become relevant.
Meanwhile, since Azerbaijan became a member of this organization in 2001, pro-Armenian and Islamophobic forces have constantly used this organization as a tool against Azerbaijan. Membership in this organization has given almost nothing to Azerbaijan. The CoE and PACE, as well as other Christian clubs—the European Union and the European Parliament—have always demonstrated a biased, non-objective position towards Azerbaijan and Türkiye.
The Council of Europe has turned into a camp of Islamophobic and Turkophobic representatives of various European countries who could not get into the European Parliament. The fact that German MP Frank Schwabe proposed sanctions against Azerbaijan is not accidental. The recent joint actions of France and Germany against Azerbaijan in Europe should not be overlooked. The fact that France, which has already brought its attitude towards Azerbaijan to the limit of hostility, in some cases tries to realize its desires through Germany to hide its main intention, is quite obvious. France, due to a series of foreign policy failures and a loss of influence, is once again covering itself with Germany. However, both the France-Germany tandem and other countries and international organizations should understand that it is inappropriate to talk to Azerbaijan in the language of threats. This will cause more harm to themselves.
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