'Azerbaijan ready to work constructively with CoE'

Azerbaijan sent a letter to the Council of Europe (CE) in regard to the issue of political prisoners and brought Azerbaijan's position on the issue to the attention of the CE leadership, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on International and Interparliamentary Relations Samed Seyidov said.

"Azerbaijan is ready to work constructively with the CE on this issue. This problem should be investigated not only in Azerbaijan but also in countries of the CE," Seyidov said. It is meaningless to search political prisoners only in Azerbaijan. It is very strange to look for this problem only in Azerbaijan, while it is a problem of whole Europe.

"We expressed our position on the issue and will keep it in the future. We are and will be against the policy of using human rights as a tool to press on Azerbaijan. No one can turn human rights into a tool of pressure." Seyidov said.

It was decided to appoint a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan in Berlin at a meeting of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights in March 2009. A member of the Socialist Group of PACE Christoph Strässer, from Germany, was appointed to this position.


/Trend/