{"id":19372,"date":"2026-04-20T19:36:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/?p=19372"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:36:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:36:41","slug":"pace-spring-session-begins-what-issues-concerning-azerbaijan-are-on-the-agenda-ahmad-shahidov-reports-from-strasbourg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/?p=19372","title":{"rendered":"PACE Spring Session begins: what issues concerning Azerbaijan are on the agenda? &#8211; Ahmad Shahidov reports from Strasbourg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ooYmowUoFhk?si=VIJaVq1TUI6ard2V\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nOn April 20, the Spring Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe began its work in Strasbourg, France. Within the framework of the session, which will continue until April 26, a number of issues, including the situation in the Middle East, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the complete abolition of the death penalty worldwide, combating the financing of terrorism, confiscation of criminal proceeds, violence and hate speech against political figures, and the protection of freedom of religion and belief, will also be discussed.<\/p>\n<p>Human rights defender Ahmad Shahidov, who is closely participating in the work of the session, shared his views from Strasbourg on this round of discussions and the expected speeches. According to Ahmad Shahidov, biased statements concerning Azerbaijan are also expected to be made within the framework of the PACE Spring Session: \u201cThe peace agenda in the South Caucasus is today at the center of the world\u2019s attention. The peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia is currently the main factor determining the future of the region. Azerbaijan has already clearly demonstrated its position in the post-conflict period. Concrete steps have been taken towards signing a peace agreement, delimitation of borders, and the opening of communications. However, despite this, some circles intend to delay or manipulate this process. Especially in the context of the elections to be held in Armenia in June, the possibility of this issue becoming a political instrument is quite high.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The human rights defender also added that false propaganda is once again being carried out on the PACE platform regarding Armenian-origin individuals held in Azerbaijan: \u201cThis specifically concerns Ruben Vardanyan, Arayik Harutyunyan, Bako Sahakyan and others. These individuals are accused under Azerbaijani legislation of committing war crimes. Unfortunately, some political and media circles in Europe are trying to present them as \u2018political prisoners\u2019 or \u2018prisoners of conscience\u2019. This is a clear distortion of reality. Because this is not about individuals detained for their political views, but about persons accused of specific crimes and subjected to legal proceedings. Azerbaijan is acting in accordance with international law on this matter, and this process continues within the legal framework. However, despite this, the information pressure and propaganda campaign against our country continues. That is why it is very important to be here \u2013 in Strasbourg \u2013 to closely monitor these discussions and to convey Azerbaijan\u2019s rightful position on the spot.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19374\" src=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1-700x394.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1-700x394.jpg 700w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1-475x267.jpg 475w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026-1.jpg 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 20, the Spring Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe began its work in Strasbourg, France. Within the framework of the session, which will continue&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[248,62,61,233,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-activities-at-the-parliamentary-assembly-of-the-council-of-europe","category-actual","category-events","category-visit-abroad","category-visits"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/aspa_20.04.2026.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19375,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372\/revisions\/19375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shahidov.com\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}