Members of PACE Monitoring Committee held press-conference devoted to results of visit

The members of the PACE Monitoring Committee held a press-conference for journalists after the meeting.

The deputy-chairman of the committee Mrs. Severinsen informed that the question of fulfilling the commitments undertaken by Azerbaijan before the Council of Europe was discussed in the sitting, an exchange of views on free gathering and protecting the election rights in Azerbaijan was held with the representatives of the government, opposition and non-governmental organizations. Severinsen reminded that the elections to be held in November are vital for Azerbaijan and said that the same question will also be discussed in the meeting with Ilham Aliyev yesterday.

The co-raporteur on Azerbaijan of the Monitoring Committee Andreas Gross said that he will leave for Gazakh, Sheki, Ganja and Gabala with his colleague Andres Herkel tomorrow for studying the situation on pre-elections environment and right of gathering in the regions. “Azerbaijan does not consist of only Baku, the situation seems better from the regions” saying Andreas Gross considers that at least ¼ of the parliament should consist of the representatives of the opposition. “When the relation is lower than this, then the parliament is not formed well.

The parliament should not be the continuation of the Cabinet; it should consist both of the government and opposition”. Another co-raporteur on Azerbaijan of the Monitoring Committee Andres Herkel called the meetings they held very efficient. The co-raporteur noted that existence of the right of gathering of the people in the regions is important and expressed his regret that the opposition could realize the actions only in 4 regions, though they wanted to do it in 17 regions. Herkel called abolishing the imprisonment sentence on the former prisoners to be very important event and welcomed 4 former political prisoners’ obtaining the right of being elected. He did not also hide his trouble about that the activity of the Public Television remains only on the paper till now. “This television has a great role in holding debates. We are troubled with absence of the political dialogue between the government and opposition”.

The PACE raporteur on the Upper Garabagh conflict David Atkinson reminded that the document related to the problem was adopted in January of this year. He said that the structure he represents wants this problem to be solved only in peaceful way and declared that parliamentarians’ joining this question is the desired case. “I regret that the parliament members were not drawn into the OSCE Minsk Group five meetings which were held between the representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the frame of the meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I feel regret about such meeting’s not taking place in the January session. I hope that a round table on the Upper Garabagh subject will take place in October”.

The head of the delegation of Azerbaijan in PACE Samad Seyidov expressed his gratitude to the Monitoring Committee for holding such meeting in Baku.

The parliamentarian called the meeting very important and efficient and said that necessary discussions for the future of Azerbaijan were held here and informed that both positive and negative opinions were sounded.

He expressed his hope that all problems will be solved till the elections. Andreas Gross answering the questions informed that except the government, no one is satisfied with the pre-elections situation. “We are not satisfied with the changes made to the Election Code and we are troubled with the non-equal composition of the election commissions”.

/APA/