Azerbaijani Parliament member accuses PACE Secretary-General of not honoring gentlemen’s agreement

Member of Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Elkhan Suleymanov has appealed to President of the PACE Ms. Anne Brasseur, members of the Bureau of the PACE, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe Mr. Thorbjorn Jagland and Secretary-General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Mr. Wojciech Sawicki, SIA reports.

PACE part-session in June was characterized with discussions on numerous interesting and important issues. Among these, motion for resolution demanding the application of sanctions against Armenia for its occupation of Azerbaijani territories, submitted under my authorship, and co-signed by 58 members representing 14 member-states, drew the attention of the Bureau on 27 June and was subject to tense discussions, but without decision.

The appeal says: "During Presidential Committee on 22 June, Secretariat raised a last minute procedural objection against this motion, even when the motion was officially printed and published earlier, thus - according the Rules - proving to be fully in order.

Whereas on 22 June no Rule could be literally quoted against this motion, members however hesitated to speak against the Secretariat. Eventually it was unanimously decided that the motion would be referred for report to the Political Affairs Committee. This ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ was communicated to me on 23 June by Mr Sawicki, Secretary-General of PACE.

During our meeting on 23 June it was proposed to me to rewrite my motion, not mentioning sanctions, accordingly and to collect again required signatures within 18 hours. At the same time, Mr. Sawicki told me during our meeting that if I do not submit a new motion on a required format, a new motion on this topic will be prepared by the Secretariat. As my first motion was absolutely in order, I first refused to accept such proposal. But as I realized serious pressure by Secretariat, I achieved to table a new motion, in due short time.

Very surprisingly, even short time after I tabled my new motion by making a compromise, a third and next formal and misleading motion for resolution, - on the same topic!-, which deceived the international community and the Azerbaijani people, and which in fact did not cover the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, came on the surface. This motion was the one, about which Mr. Sawicki told me during our meeting on June 23. The motion, entitled "The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict", which was tabled a few hours after my motion, obviously serves the interests of Armenia, as it does not cover the situation of ALL Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia. It means that international organizations and Armenians beware of discussing seven surrounding Azerbaijani regions, which are held under military occupation by Armenia.

It is of course very unfortunate that they could convince the author and some more members to sign this "third" motion, possibly pretending that their text is so-called ‘more balanced’, whereas it is just misleading signatories as it is only covering up Armenia’s obstinacy to have an open debate on situation of ALL occupied territories.

All three motions were included in the Bureau agenda on 27 June, meaning all three were apparently in order, and were discussed simultaneously.

Unfortunately, a few Bureau members, clearly operating on behalf of Armenia, created deliberately total confusion and big tension during Bureau meeting. Eventually it was decided to postpone any decision on all three motions till 2 September 2014 Bureau meeting in Paris.

Dear Colleagues, I truly regret that the gentlemen’s agreement by Presidential Committee and Secretary-General, to refer my amended motion for report to the Political Affairs Committee, was not honored yet. The decision only being postponed, you still have the opportunity to vote in favor of my two motions, calling for an open debate, a comprehensive report and a constructive resolution on ALL occupied Azerbaijani territories, on 2 September, in Paris.

Undoubtedly, you will be under huge pressure by Armenians NOT to accept a report, based on motions submitted by me.

Another motion for resolution was tabled, few days after the part-session, by Ms. Arpine Hovhannisyan, member of Armenian delegation, on "Harassment of investigative journalists in Azerbaijan reporting on corruption". The timing of this motion and all Armenian MP’s co-signing it, on an outdated topic that regards one single Azerbaijani activist, is no coincidence.

This so-called motion for resolution, which obviously aims at insuring Armenian delegation from sanctions in PACE for its occupation of Azerbaijani territories for over 23 years and prepared under Armenia’s authorship immediately after my motion, directly serves the aggressive policy of Armenia, doesn’t it?

The fact that international organizations, as well as PACE does not apply sanctions against Armenia, which carried out ethnic cleansing policy in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and made one million civilians become refugees and internally displaced people, on the contrary, they guarantee it from sanctions encourages Armenia to commit new crimes against Azerbaijan. The fact that Armenia violated the cease-fire regime along the front-line and frontier Azerbaijani regions aside the front-line in late July – early August, its armed attacks against Azerbaijan, and attempts to realize intelligence and diversion operations led to serious armed confrontation and resulted in a great number of casualties and wounding of pupils (children) in Aghstafa, Tovuz, and Gadabay, frontier Azerbaijani regions which are located far enough from the front-line. I believe that aggressive Armenia and international organizations, as well as PACE, which patronizes and insures this aggressive state from sanctions for long years, should share the responsibility for this dangerous situation reminding an open war on the front-line and different directions along Armenian-Azerbaijani line.

I believe that all of you, who are defending honesty, dignity and objectivity, will not just ignore the 23 years long-term occupation of one fifth of the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, including Nagorno-Karabakh, by Armenia. I trust that you will not kneel before any corporate interests or misused religious solidarity defending blindly Armenia’s eternal immunity, but that you eventually will seek justice with me, in the European home of democracy, human rights and the rule of law, a home in which we all truly believe and put our hope.

Finally, I want to believe that the objective and principled forces will not ignore the long-term occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia, will not allow the corporate interests of forces, who aim at ensuring Armenia’s immunity to win over European values, and will adopt a decision to refer my both motions to Political Affairs Committee for report, by adhering to principles covered in major PACE documents and reflected in the decision adopted in PACE regarding Ukrainian developments."