THIS TIME AZERBAIJAN WILL NOT BE ABLE TO AVOID BEING SANCTIONED

With the understanding of this, the Azerbaijani delegation in PACE is going to declare about boycotting the works of the assembly.

The summer session of the Parliament Assembly of the Council of Europe started in Strasburg. The agenda of the session to last till June 27 includes issues touching upon the interests of both Yerevan and Baku. Armenia has already heard the criticism addressed to it. The PACE MPs mentioned the serious shortcomings noticed during the Parliamentary elections held in the end of May. They took into account the evaluation of the PACE observers which nevertheless described the elections as a ''step forward in the way to the democracy''. Nobody spoke about sanctions towards Armenia, and the issue on recognition of plenipotentiaries of Armenian MPs was postponed for the next session. The situation with Azerbaijan is a little bit different. The PACE bureau has refused to the Azerbaijani delegation asking to postpone the discussion of the issue on political prisoners for January.

June 24, 2003

PanARMENIAN.Net - The report ''Political prisoners in Azerbaijan'' was included in the agenda of the session of June 26 with 101 votes for and 57 against. In Baku they are concerned that after the publication of the report, the issue of suspension Azerbaijan’s membership in PACE will rise. There are enough bases for such a concern. The document on the problem of political prisoners in Azerbaijan was prepared by the special reporter of the PACE Committee on Human Rights and Legal Issues, Belgian George Clairfight. The text of the report is known. It was presented on the session of the Committee taken place on June 5 in Paris. The reporter not only criticizes the Azerbaijani authorities for non-accomplishment of liabilities, but also stresses the significant increase of the number of the political prisoners.

The report reads that the double court trials of the former Minister of Internal Affairs Iskender Hamidov, ex-Minister of defense Ragim Gaziyev and President of Talish-Mugani Republic Alikram Gumbatov are going on with serious violations of law and fall short of European standards. Clairfight demands cancellation of sanctions on arrest of the former President Ayaz Mutalibov and former Speaker of Parliament Rasul Guliyev who are going to fight for the post of the President. The report reads that ''if till September all the political prisoners are not released, sanctions will be imposed on Azerbaijan''. This seems to be a deadline. No doubts that the Assembly will confirm this point of the report. It will mean that on the eve of the Presidential elections the ruling elite of Baku will have a surprise that will seriously affect not only the results of the voting but also the fate of the Azerbaijani state.

Even the mass media of Baku do not doubt this. ''It seems that the council of Europe is loosing the patience,'' Zerkalo writes. ''It shouldn't be ruled out that in September 2003 serious sanctions will be imposed upon Azerbaijan,'' the ''Echo'' newspaper reads. The situation of Azerbaijan seems hopeless. The members of the Azerbaijani delegation in PACE headed by Ilham Aliyev already understand that there is no sense to keep fighting.