Baku's membership in CoE may be questionedNovember 16, 2009 - 11:14 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mr Thorbjorn Jagland slammed arrest of two bloggers in Azerbaijan. "I have followed the developments in Azerbaijan for quite a long time and therefore I could say that we are not so surprised. We are very concerned about the development with regard to human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan. It's always difficult when member states are not complying with their obligations to the Council of Europe. The only thing we can do is to always remind them about their obligations. We also have monitoring mechanism we can use. Whenever things like this happen, we always have to get authorities to be accountable to what they are doing," he said. "Council of Europe does not have the means and tools that can change the situation immediately. But we believe that for instance in this case, Azerbaijan's presence in the Council of Europe will [lead it to be] influenced over time We can only have members in the Council of Europe that are complying with the standards and values of the organization. That does not mean that everybody has to be perfect. But [there] is [a] necessity to comply with the rules, standards, and values that we have and that there going in the right direction. This is how the Council of Europe works," Mr. Jagland said. He also emphasized that it is unacceptable to use energy resources as an excuse for not moving in the right direction with regard to human rights and democracy, RFE/RL reported. Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Police try to impede Armenian Church head’s access to war memorial Police tried to stop the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, from visiting a war memorial. Greece says ready to help as Armenia fights flooding consequences Greece is ready to assist Armenia in combatting the consequences of deadly floods in the country’s north. “He will leave”: Protest leader no longer demands meeting with Pashinyan Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan no longer demands a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Lemkin Institute petition seeks release of Armenians in Azerbaijan The Lemkin Institute is deeply concerned about the continued illegal detention of political prisoners from Karabakh in Azerbaijan. |