PACE member Mr Paul Gavan from Ireland and co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan said Azerbaijan is moving to more authoritarian regime. In particular, Gavan, during the debate “Deteriorating situation of human rights, rule of law and democracy in Azerbaijan” said:
“I wish to state our huge concern at the continuing path of the authoritarian Azerbaijan regime towards ever greater levels of oppression towards its own citizens, as well as its appalling treatment of the former citizens in Nagorno-Karabakh and its bellicose and threatening behavior towards its neighboring country, Armenia. This year, both so-called presidential and parliamentary elections were held in a manner that would even make the leadership of North Korea blush. President Aliyev has won five consecutive elections apparently since succeeding his father, Haider Aliyev, in 2003. A 2009 referendum abolished the term limit for the presidency and the post of vice president was created in 2016 and surprise, surprise was immediately granted to the president's wife. To be clear, we are talking about a cruel dictatorship run as a family mafia dynasty, responsible for ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh and oppression of its own citizens. Aliyev and his henchmen make television sopranos look like social workers by comparison.
The state of human rights and democracy in Azerbaijan has deteriorated even further in recent years with the detention of human rights activists, opposition figures and independent journalists on politically motivated charges and of course the ethnic cleansing of over 100,000 citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh. Arbitrary arrests, indefinite detentions, severe beatings, torture and forced disappearances have all become systemic means of oppressing people in the most appalling manner.
This year the number of political prisoners has been tripled as the regime works to ensure that all opposition voices are silenced in the run-up to COP29 in November. It's a sad reflection that world powers continue to gift cop to some of the worst regimes on the planet, money once again trumping human rights. In light of all of these actions it's clear that the Assembly was correct to refuse to ratify the credentials of the Azerbaijan delegation earlier this year.
Our values are supposed to be rooted in democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The Azerbaijan regime believes in alternatively in plutocracy, torture and the rule of terror. I believe it is time to initiate a complementary joint procedure between the Committee of Ministers and the Parliamentary Assembly in relation to the many serious violations by Azerbaijan of its statutory obligations to this violations by Azerbaijan of its statutory obligations to this
Organization”.
