Today, Azerbaijan
July 6 2005
Members of PACE Monitoring Committee held press-conference devoted to
results of visit
06 July 2005 [10:57] – Today.Az
Closed meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe was held in Baku yesterday.
The members of the PACE Monitoring Committee held a press-conference
for journalists after the meeting.
The deputy-chairman of the committee Mrs. Severinsen informed that
the question of fulfilling the commitments undertaken by Azerbaijan
before the Council of Europe was discussed in the sitting, an
exchange of views on free gathering and protecting the election
rights in Azerbaijan was held with the representatives of the
government, opposition and non-governmental organizations. Severinsen
reminded that the elections to be held in November are vital for
Azerbaijan and said that the same question will also be discussed in
the meeting with Ilham Aliyev yesterday.
The co-raporteur on Azerbaijan of the Monitoring Committee Andreas
Gross said that he will leave for Gazakh, Sheki, Ganja and Gabala
with his colleague Andres Herkel tomorrow for studying the situation
on pre-elections environment and right of gathering in the regions.
`Azerbaijan does not consist of only Baku, the situation seems better
from the regions’ saying Andreas Gross considers that at least ¼ of
the parliament should consist of the representatives of the
opposition. `When the relation is lower than this, then the
parliament is not formed well.
The parliament should not be the continuation of the Cabinet; it
should consist both of the government and opposition’. Another
co-raporteur on Azerbaijan of the Monitoring Committee Andres Herkel
called the meetings they held very efficient. The co-raporteur noted
that existence of the right of gathering of the people in the regions
is important and expressed his regret that the opposition could
realize the actions only in 4 regions, though they wanted to do it in
17 regions. Herkel called abolishing the imprisonment sentence on the
former prisoners to be very important event and welcomed 4 former
political prisoners’ obtaining the right of being elected. He did not
also hide his trouble about that the activity of the Public
Television remains only on the paper till now. `This television has a
great role in holding debates. We are troubled with absence of the
political dialogue between the government and opposition’.
The PACE raporteur on the Upper Garabagh conflict David Atkinson
reminded that the document related to the problem was adopted in
January of this year. He said that the structure he represents wants
this problem to be solved only in peaceful way and declared that
parliamentarians’ joining this question is the desired case. `I
regret that the parliament members were not drawn into the OSCE Minsk
Group five meetings which were held between the representatives of
Azerbaijan and Armenia in the frame of the meeting of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. I feel regret about
such meeting’s not taking place in the January session. I hope that a
round table on the Upper Garabagh subject will take place in
October’.
The head of the delegation of Azerbaijan in PACE Samad Seyidov
expressed his gratitude to the Monitoring Committee for holding such
meeting in Baku.
The parliamentarian called the meeting very important and efficient
and said that necessary discussions for the future of Azerbaijan were
held here and informed that both positive and negative opinions were
sounded.
He expressed his hope that all problems will be solved till the
elections. Andreas Gross answering the questions informed that except
the government, no one is satisfied with the pre-elections situation.
`We are not satisfied with the changes made to the Election Code and
we are troubled with the non-equal composition of the election
commissions’.
/APA/
URL: