Murad Sadaddinov: "The problem of PACE and Council of Europe lies in the absence of mechanisms of forcing the CE member-states to fulfill commitments"

The PACE agenda does not include issues connected with Azerbaijan and, therefore, there will be no discussions on our country", said Murad Sadaddinov, co-chair of the Fund of Protection of Democracy and Human Rights.

He said the discussions on presidential elections are likely to be held by results of the discussions in PACE but it is still early to speak of it.

According to Sadaddinov, all CE leaders have repeatedly made announcements that CE will display a tough reaction in case of violations during presidential elections before elections, including in public, but later they forgot their announcements.

"Unfortunately, in the result of this impunity, the CE influence has dropped. How can we speak about human rights when one country - the CE member - has occupied another CE member, bombing peaceful cities and creating territorial formations, controlled by it. I mean Russia. At the same time, the Russian parliament recognizes these territories as independent from Georgia", said Sadaddinov.

As for elections in Azerbaijan, the PACE delegation will take part in observation of elections.

"This will be a small group of deputies. They will prepare a report by results of elections and the Monitoring committee and PACE bureau will decide what to do further. Considering today's passive election situation, I think that our elections will not be the subject of discussions at the PACE plenary session", said he.

As for the possible pressure PACE may put on Azerbaijani powers he said it does not matter as it is all senseless.

"First of all, there is no mechanism of pressure, second, any pressure gives a ground for accusations in double standards. It is possible to say now that the results of elections here will not be similar to the results of elections in Armenia.

Asked what he thinks about the announcement of the head of Armenian delegation in PACE David Arutyunyan that the discussions on the situation in Armenia, held in Strasbourg, were ineffective, while resolutions 1609 and 1620 demand Yerevan to release the political prisoners, hold independent investigation of March 1 events and ensure citizens' right for holding events, that heads of delegations always speak against the critical resolutions of PACE as not objective.

"Everyone is aware of the results of elections in Armenia and by the number of arrested Armenia has set a record among the CE member-states. In this sense, the adopted documents are quite fair, but unfortunately, ignoring the PACE resolutions has turned into a bitter tradition.

The problem of PACE and Council of Europe lies in the absence of mechanisms of forcing the CE member-states to fulfill commitments", he said and added that the Council of Europe needs serious reforms, because it may lose its influence. "Unfortunately, we do not see any interest in it", concluded Sadaddinov.

/Day.Az/