Azerbaijan must comply with PACE rules - F.Schwabe

Azerbaijan must unconditionally fulfill the PACE rules in order to return its delegation to the Assembly.  This was stated by Frank Schwabe, head of the German delegation to PACE.

He expressed this opinion while commenting on President Ilham Aliyev's statement that the ban on PACE deputies to enter Azerbaijan will be lifted after the restoration of the rights of the Azerbaijani delegation in the Assembly.

‘With all due respect. Who advises the President of Azerbaijan? The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe cannot be blackmailed. The conditions are very clear. Azerbaijan must abide by all the rules of the Parliamentary Assembly without any ifs and buts, political prisoners must be released and Azerbaijan must co-operate fully with the Committee against Torture. And, of course, there should be no entry bans," Schwabe wrote in social network X.

As a reminder,the PACE on 24 January did not approve the powers of the Azerbaijani delegation for a year due to the country's ‘failure to fulfill its basic obligations’"to the Council of Europe, as well as the failure to invite the Assembly's observers to the extraordinary Presidential elections.

Seventy-six deputies voted in favor of the decision, with 10 against and four abstentions.

Last month, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aykhan Hajizade claimed that PACE deputies who voted in favor of the decision would be banned to visit Azerbaijan.