Discussions related to Azerbaijan are in the spotlight on the second day of the Summer Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg, France. The Assembly’s agenda includes hearings on human rights, democracy, freedom of expression, and the state of civil society in Azerbaijan, with several parliamentarians expected to deliver critical remarks regarding the country.
Political analyst and human rights defender Ahmad Shahidov, who is currently in Strasbourg following the session, told ARB24 Television that PACE is once again demonstrating a biased approach toward Azerbaijan. According to Shahidov, during the nearly thirty years of Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories, the Council of Europe failed to give sufficient attention to the Karabakh issue and did not conduct consistent discussions regarding the rights of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons.
Ahmad Shahidov noted that PACE’s decision to place human rights and democracy issues in Azerbaijan at the center of attention, while previously failing to exert serious political pressure on Armenia over its occupation policy, represents yet another example of double standards. In his view, making one-sided accusations against Azerbaijan at a time when the country’s delegation is not represented in PACE raises serious questions about the Assembly’s objectivity and undermines its international credibility.
