“The President of Azerbaijan needs international legitimacy; that’s why Azerbaijan continues to remain in the Committee of Ministers. This is also important for the President of Azerbaijan. If the alternative is removing him from this organization, he will sit at the same table,” said Norwegian MP and rapporteur on Azerbaijan, Lise Christoffersen, in response to Aravot.am’s observation: How do you expect to bring Ilham Aliyev to the negotiating table when he refuses to comply even with ECHR rulings and has blacklisted the President of PACE?
She said that they are planning to implement a joint procedure involving the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Committee of Ministers, and Azerbaijan:
“A joint procedure means sitting at the same table. We need to develop an action plan, Azerbaijan must commit to fulfilling its obligations, and only after that can the issue of restoring their credentials be considered.”
In response to our statement that trials of Armenian prisoners of war are taking place in Baku without any international presence, and the question of what mechanisms PACE has to compel Azerbaijan to fulfill its international obligations and allow human rights organizations to attend those trials, Lise Christoffersen replied:
“The last time I was in Azerbaijan was in November 2023. At that time, I had the agreement of the Azerbaijani Minister of Justice that during the visit we would meet six detainees—human rights defenders and journalists. We were not allowed to see them. They told us they knew nothing about them, that they were not political prisoners, but criminals.
Our goal at the time was to visit Azerbaijan’s political prisoners, but in our report on Azerbaijan, we also mentioned the Armenian POWs. Unfortunately, we have not been able to discuss that report because the Azerbaijani delegation does not participate in the Assembly’s work.”
When asked why she had not traveled to Azerbaijan in 2024, Lise Christoffersen replied:
“According to PACE regulations, the national delegation must host us. However, since the Azerbaijani delegation is not participating in the Assembly’s work, we have no counterpart in Azerbaijan. Thus, we cannot go on an official fact-finding mission. Maybe the Committee of Ministers can manage to visit.”
Lise Christoffersen condemned Azerbaijan’s actions toward the President of PACE, stating that as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly, Azerbaijan has no right to behave that way:
“Azerbaijan must understand the seriousness of this situation. That is why I believe the joint procedure between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe could be a starting point—because in the end, if the joint procedure doesn’t work, if no agreement is reached, the final step should be removing them from the organization.”
When we noted, “Don’t you think that would be too late?”, the rapporteur on Azerbaijan responded:
“I’m not sure, but we must try—for the sake of Azerbaijan’s citizens.”
Tatev Harutyunyan, Strasbourg