BAKU. Feb 28 (Interfax) - The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)'s decision to strip the Azerbaijani delegation of voting rights is a manifestation of double standards, and Azerbaijan may withdraw from the Council of Europe if its delegation's rights in PACE are not reinstated, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said.
"After we restored our territorial integrity and sovereignty, PACE decides to deprive the Azerbaijani delegation of its voting rights. Unfortunately, this decision was made at the initiative of a German parliamentarian who is a member of the party led by Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz," Aliyev said while receiving a delegation of German businesspeople in Baku on Wednesday.
"Is this not double standards or some game with us?" Aliyev said.
The German chancellor is showing impartiality as concerns the normalization of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations, and his statements and actions attest to this, Aliyev said. "However, a member of the party led by him wants to shove Azerbaijan away as one of the two non-Christian countries in PACE, and he is doing that demonstratively and purposefully," he said.
"As you know, we've decided not to take part in that organization's sessions. If we have no right to express our position, why should we be there? If our delegation's rights are not reinstated within a year, we might seriously consider our full withdrawal from the Council of Europe," Aliyev said.
As reported earlier, PACE did not confirm the Azerbaijani delegation's credentials on January 24, 2024.