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“Aliyev's regime is an evil not only for its own people: 15 years of membership in the Council of Europe didn’t improve the situation of democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan, even more, it is degrading. All the statements about the progress of democracy in Azerbaijan are a deceit. Dictatorship doesn’t have place in the Council of Europe,” today, on June 20, at PACE Summer Session the RA NA Deputy Speaker, the Head of the RA NA Delegation to PACE Hermine Naghdalyan announced, calling on the Assembly to suspend Azerbaijan’s membership to PACE.

“PACE should be firm to eradicate this plague, to stop Aliyev’s regime. I suggest suspending Azerbaijan’s membership to PACE,” Hermine Naghdalyan noted in her speech, drawing the attention of the Assembly participants to xenophobia in the neighbouring country, persecution of the civil society, forcible pressure of the national minorities, the policy of mass violation of the right to speech and day by day escalation of other negative phenomena.

In this context Hermine Naghdalyan reminded her European colleagues, particularly the regular report on Azerbaijan issued on June 7 by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), where among numerous problems existing in the country, the Commission paid special attention to the policy of provoking hatred pursued by Azerbaijan’s high ranking officials towards Armenians.

According to the report, “...political leaders, educational institutions and media have continued using hate speech against Armenians. ... An entire generation of Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to constant hateful rhetoric.”

According to a survey issued in the report, 91% of Azerbaijan’s population perceives Armenia as Azerbaijan’s greatest enemy, and feel real hatred towards everything Armenian.

“The President of Azerbaijan and other high ranking officials designate the entire Armenian nation as “the enemy number one,” and what is considered to be a crime, is observed in Azerbaijan as a glorious deed,” Hermine Naghdalyan noted in her word, bringing as a vivid example Ramil Safarov's crime towards the Armenian officer. Hermine Naghdalyan has underlined that the ECRI report, touching upon this case, notes: “... that the authorities have pardoned, released and promoted Ramil Safarov, without taking into account the risk of cultivating a sense of impunity for the criminals of racism.”

As continuous manifestation of Azerbaijani xenophobic policy, Hermine Naghdalyan referred to the horrible crimes committed by the Azerbaijani armed forces during the unprecedented military aggression unleashed by the Azerbaijani Army against Nagorno Karabakh on April 2, 2016, when the Azerbaijani soldier, who beheaded the Armenian officer and posted the head on the internet, the soldier, who committed a war crime, had been encouraged and promoted by President Aliyev.

In her speech Hermine Naghdalyan has noted that though Safarov’s case has been widely discussed and denounced by PACE, a Resolution on Measures to Prevent Abusive Use of the Convention has been adopted, during which the rapporteur introduced those possible harms that could stem, if not reacted adequately, nevertheless it is not a sufficient response from PACE: “We were not consistent to stop Aliyev, our silence encouraged the Azerbaijani authorities to commit further crimes,” the NA Deputy Speaker said.

By the way, the Head of the European Conservatives Group, the British MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, presenting the report of the Bureau, touched upon Hermine Naghdalyan’s speech, qualified it as a huge phenomenon, which left an influential impression both on him and the attendees in the hall. The British MP highlighted the concerns raised in the NA Deputy Speaker’s speech, underlining that we should consistently voice about them.