Azerbaijan ends engagement with PACE after suspension of its credentials
- 25 January, 06:57
Azerbaijan on Wednesday announced its decision to cease engagement with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in response to the organization’s decision to suspend the country’s credentials.
In a statement made on January 24, the Azerbaijani delegation said PACE’s decision was a “vicious campaign” and a “deliberate” attempt to interfere with the snap presidential election scheduled for February 7.
“The proposed refusal to ratify the credentials of our delegation will be a serious blow to the credibility and impartiality of the Council of Europe as a whole, and the responsibility for its grave and irreversible consequences will entirely lie with its initiators,” the delegation’s statement reads.
On January 24, in the opening day of the 2024 winter plenary session, the PACE resolved not to ratify the credentials of Azerbaijan’s parliamentary delegation, citing a “failure to fulfill major commitments”. In a statement published in its official website, PACE stated that its decision concerned only the credentials of the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation and that Azerbaijan “continues to be a full member of the Council of Europe.”
The Azerbaijani delegation’s credentials were challenged upon proposal from head of PACE’s German delegation Frank Schwabe who cited the existence of political prisoners in the country, the displacement of people from Nagorno-Karabakh, the fact that Assembly rapporteurs were unable to visit Azerbaijan at least three times during 2023, and the lack of an invitation to the Assembly to observe the country’s 7 February presidential election. At least thirty members voted in favor of Schwabe’s proposal.
The Azerbaijani delegation accused PACE of “bias” and of failure to hold Armenia accountable for the invasion of Azerbaijani for around thirty years.
Azerbaijan has been the member of the Council of Europe since 2001.
