Today.Az » Politics » Andres Herkel: "We are holding discussions on Azerbaijan today because the situation in the country still creates concerns" - UPDATED
24 June 2008 [15:52] - Today.Az
The activity of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan is discussed on the second working day of the summer session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
16:52
"I do hope that Armenian delegation and Armenian opposition will recognize the fact of Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani lands", said member of Azerbaijani delegation Gultekin Hajiyeva.
She reminded that a part of Azerbaijani lands are under occupation, which contradicts to the CE principles.
"The issue of Azerbaijan's execution of its commitments before the Council of Europe has been discussed more than once. There are serious problems with democracy, corruption and others in most post-Soviet countries.
We have witnessed application of double standards in approaches to these issues. One should be objective while speaking about these countries. Destruction of Christian and Albanian cemeteries creates concern of the PACE Committee for Culture, Education and Science.
There is a question: why should we ruin our cultural and historical heritage? Numerous Azerbaijani historical and cultural memorials have been destroyed in Armenia. We would like the PACE committee to reflect in its report the fact of destruction of hundreds of Azerbaijani mosques and cemeteries by Armenians and not focus only on Nakhchivam. Azerbaijan is always ready for cooperation in this sphere".
In turn, chairman of the PACE Monitoring Committee Sergey Qolovatiy announced that issues, connected with the report, were initially discussed in the monitoring committee.
"If 7-8 reports are prepared on Azerbaijan, it is not our mistake. The country should oberve principles of democracy, legal state and supremacy of law, respect human rights. I hope this issue will not be raised in 2009.
Even if discussions on Azerbaijan are held, we will not discuss violations during the elections, which depends on the will of the Azerbaijani government".
Discussions in PACE are going on.
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15:20
Co-rapporteurs of the PACE Monitoring Committee on Azerbaijan Andres Herkel and Eugenia Zivkova delivered speeches at the meeting, APA European bureau reports.
Andres Herkel said the situation in Azerbaijan still causes concern.
"We have to think about why today we are discussing Azerbaijan again: because the situation in Azerbaijan still causes concern. We are concerned with the human rights situation, particularly with the freedom of mass media in the country. The situation in this field is no heartwarming. Unfortunately, such kind of facts can play a negative role in the achievement of positive changes. However, we welcome the adoption of law on the "Freedom of Assembly" and parliament discussions on the prevention of money laundering and terrorism. I believe these laws will also be adopted soon. One of the main points relates to the amendments to the Electoral Code on the basis of our and Venice Commission’s recommendations. I would like to note that not all recommendations were discussed in the parliament and there are problems in the formation of election commissions. Arrest of the journalists creates non-friendly pre-election environment. May be there are criminal elements in these arrests, but we should acknowledge that it has political sides too".
Eugenia Zivkova positively assessed the releasing of 59 persons, including 5 journalists by the pardon decree issued by President Ilham Aliyev.
"I consider you will see that this report was balanced. We consider that next elections in Azerbaijan will be more democratic. Points of this report are very objective, but I should notice that the problems remain in some fields."
Discussions of the report on "Activity of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan" are going on.
/APA/
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