If Azerbaijan were to fully withdraw from the Council of Europe, no one in the country would feel the difference. In other words, not much would change here, and perhaps things might even improve, stated President Ilham Aliyev.
According to the Operative Information Center-OMM, the President made these remarks during the opening of the IV Shusha Global Media Forum.
“We do not want to engage in confrontation, especially when it comes to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or even the European Parliament. I reiterate that they are taking such unfounded steps against us. They treat Azerbaijan with such specific bias. These are their attacks, and all of them are baseless,” the head of state emphasized.
The Council of Europe, established in 1949, is the continent's leading human rights organization. Azerbaijan joined the Council in 2001, committing to uphold the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights. Recent tensions between Baku and the Strasbourg-based body have centered on disagreements regarding the monitoring of Azerbaijan's internal affairs and the impartiality of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in its assessment of regional developments.
