Azerbaijan blacklists PACE president 

ArmInfo.  Azerbaijan has declared the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Theodoros Roussopoulos persona non grata, including him in the so-called black list of the country.

According to local media, this is how the Azerbaijani Foreign  Ministry responded to the statement of the PACE head that Ilham  Aliyev is a dictator.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of  Europe (PACE) Theodoros Roussopoulos, commenting to Alpha News on  Aliyev's statement that Azerbaijan will not comply with the ECHR  rulings, noted that the statements of the Azerbaijani leader about  the Council of Europe confirm the justice of depriving the  Azerbaijani delegation of its powers in the Assembly.

"Two days ago, Aliyev said in the most cynical way that he doesn't  care about the Council of Europe and that he thinks that we need it  more than it needs us, that the world has changed. He spread fake  news, saying that the Council of Europe decided to challenge the  credentials of the Azerbaijani delegation because of Nagorno-Karabakh  and the battle that his country won. This is absolutely fake, because  we asked the Azerbaijani authorities, first of all, to allow our  rapporteurs to travel to the Lachin corridor, to Nagorno-Karabakh.  Then we constantly asked for permission for our observers to observe  the elections in the country. We also asked for permission for the  rapporteurs to visit Aliyev's political opponents who are in prison. 

Aliyev, as you know, has a habit of imprisoning his political  opponents. And they have never responded to our calls, they have  always refused us. And so, after two years of refusing to respect the  rule of law, human rights, although this has been going on for much  longer, refusing to respect the demands of the Council of Europe, The  Assembly rightly decided not to ratify the credentials of the  Azerbaijani delegation.

Since Aliyev said he doesn't care about the Council of Europe, that's  his opinion. I'm not going to comment on that. I'm going to raise  this issue next Wednesday with the ambassadors, with the chief  minister, as I have done in the past. I have made a lot of efforts to  bring back the Azerbaijanis, I have talked about respect for the rule  of law, democratic procedures and the protection of human rights.  They have not done that.

They first said they would take action, which we have not seen. They  released one detainee, but then they arrested others. So the Assembly  has done its job. And it is clear that the Assembly rightly did not  ratify the delegation's credentials, and this is confirmed by these  statements by Aliyev today. We do not regret it and we believe that  we did the right thing," he said.

Speaking about Aliyev's ultimatum refusal to comply with the  decisions of the European Court of Human Rights, Rusopolos noted that  no one can blackmail the Council of Europe. "The Council of Europe is  not afraid of such statements, because the Council of Europe has made  and makes decisions in its Assembly in accordance with the rule of  law, human rights and democratic procedures. After the January  session, I addressed the ministers, the Committee of Ministers, I  specifically mentioned Georgia, saying that this is not a club where  selective approach is acceptable, because tomorrow, and this is  exactly what I told the ambassadors, we may have some states that  will refuse the Court of Human Rights.

Not even three months have passed since Aliyev confirmed my fears.  Put the word "fears" in brackets, because we are not afraid of  anything, we are not afraid of Aliyev or anyone else who behaves like  a dictator. So now this is an issue that, I hope, the Committee of  Ministers will have to decide. The position of the Assembly is very  clear - we have decided that none of our member states can say that I  do not respect the rules, I will refuse this body, institutional body  or other institutional body," he concluded.