Ilham Aliyev Accuses Jagland

Baku / 15.11.17 / Turan: Azerbaijan can voluntarily withdraw from the Council of Europe. This idea was voiced the day before by the head of state Ilham Aliyev, speaking in Baku at a solemn meeting dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party.

"For more than 15 years we have been an active member of the Council of Europe, but recently an artificial crisis was created between Azerbaijan and this structure as a result of the activity of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe," he said.

"We are not the initiators of this crisis. We are just taking adequate steps related to the unfair and hypocritical policies carried out against us," Aliyev continued.

"If this crisis deepens, then Azerbaijan will be free in its choice. We voluntarily joined all organizations of which we are a member, and we can voluntarily withdraw from them," Aliyev said.

Recall that the crisis in relations between Baku and Strasbourg has been going on for a long time. The situation worsened after the Council of Europe Secretary General T. Jagland launched a mechanism for punishing a member state that ignores its own commitments made upon accession to the Council of Europe (Art. 46).

One of these obligations is the mandatory execution of the verdicts of the European Court of Human Rights. Baku has not complied with the ECHR"s decision on Ilgar Mammadov recognized as a political prisoner for several years already.

At present, the procedure for expelling Azerbaijan is under way in Strasbourg and it may be completed this year. -02D-