Azerbaijan rejects and condemns PACE resolution

Baku/14.10.23/Turan: The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry strongly rejects and angrily condemns the resolution and recommendations adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on October 12 regarding the situation in Karabakh.

This structure has once again demonstrated its inability to be impartial towards Azerbaijan, the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a commentary.

Instead of welcoming measures to eliminate the threat to the security and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan from the separatist regime and illegal Armenian armed groups, PACE continues to demonstrate an approach towards the country based on rumors and insidious policies in the region of certain states seeking to discredit Azerbaijan.

The resolution and recommendations adopted by PACE not only contradict the fundamental documents of the Council of Europe, confirming the obligations to respect the norms and principles of international law, independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, but also incite Armenia to new aggression and revanchism against Azerbaijan.

A distorted representation of local anti-terrorism activities lasting only 24 hours, despite the fact that the UN High Commission for Refugees and the UN mission that visited the region, the non-use of any violence by Azerbaijan against the local population is an indicator of the biased attitude in PACE against Azerbaijan for a long time.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry also considered unacceptable the incorrect interpretation in PACE of the traffic situation on the Lachin road for 10 months, as well as the decision of the International Court of July 6, 2023, which rejected the claim regarding the establishment of a border checkpoint in Lachin by Baku.

The careless attitude by PACE to the fate of about 4,000 Azerbaijanis who went missing as a result of the conflict after the 44-day war in 2020 and 333 people who were killed by mine explosions, as well as to the scale of destruction in the former occupied territories is also deeply disturbing.

Slanderous accusations against Azerbaijan due to the voluntary displacement of Armenian residents of the Karabakh region, while PACE has been covering up for 30 years violations of the rights of hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons and Azerbaijani refugees expelled from Armenia is a blatant violation of the organization’s human rights obligations.

PACE, while protecting the rights of ethnic Armenians from non-existent threats, ignores appeals for the restoration of the rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia and their worthy return.

PACE must stop unfounded and biased steps that undermine the prospects for peace efforts between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry believes that short-sighted attempts to use the mechanisms of the Council of Europe against Azerbaijan will only have the opposite results.

It is emphasized that such actions are not capable of undermining Azerbaijan’s commitment to ensure lasting peace in the region and the reintegration of the Armenian population of the Karabakh region.

The resolution adopted on October 12 by PACE noted that the mass exodus of almost the entire Armenian population from the region led to “accusations and reasonable suspicions that this may amount to ethnic cleansing.” PACE called on the Azerbaijani authorities “to spare no effort to prove in practice that this is not so.”

If Azerbaijan does not fulfill its obligations, the Assembly will have “no alternative but to call for the initiation of a joint procedure between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly for serious violations by Azerbaijan of its statutory obligations, and to challenge the authority of the Azerbaijani delegation at its 2024 session,” it further states in the PACE resolution. -06B-