Azerbaijani delegation suspends work at PACE - statement

BAKU. Jan 24 (Interfax) - The Azerbaijani delegation has announced its decision to suspend its interactions with and its presence at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

"In the face of the current unbearable atmosphere of racism, Azerbaijanophobia and Islamophobia in the PACE, the delegation of Azerbaijan decides to cease its engagement with and presence at the PACE until further notice," the delegation said in a statement.

"Core principles of the PACE are exploited by certain biased groups to advance their narrow interests. Political corruption, discrimination, ethnic and religious hatred, double standards, arrogance, chauvinism have become a prevailing practice in the PACE. We see the initiative on challenging the credentials of the delegation of Azerbaijan to the PACE as a part of this vicious campaign," Azerbaijani media quoted a delegation member as saying in presenting the statement at the PACE headquarters in Strasbourg.

The delegation members said they viewed "this initiative as a deliberate and unacceptable attempt to unduly interfere with the ongoing electoral process in Azerbaijan and vivid example of insidious actions to undermine the functioning of democratic institutions in our country."

"The proposed refusal to ratify the credentials of our delegation will be a serious blow to the credibility and impartiality of the Council of Europe as a whole, and the responsibility for its grave and irreversible consequences will entirely lie with its initiators," the statement says.

The delegation members argued that, "after Azerbaijan's historic victory," the country has faced "an orchestrated smear campaign."

"During almost 20 years when the Azerbaijani delegation was raising grave consequences of Armenian occupation, we were told that the PACE is not the right format to discuss conflict-related issues. But now, the same PACE and the same MPs say quite the opposite and don't miss any opportunity to attack Azerbaijan," the statement says.

"Selective interpretation of international law and different treatment of issues pertaining to territorial integrity and sovereignty of states, demonstrate the cynical and hypocritical nature of the authors of this shameful proposal," the authors said.

"Nobody in the world, including those sitting in this hall, can speak with Azerbaijan in the language of threat and blackmailing," they said.

After reading out the statement, the Azerbaijani delegation left the session hall.

Azerbaijan joined the Council of Europe in 2001.