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PR Newswire Europe
December 5, 2014 Friday 5:09 AM EST
Azerbaijan Urges European Parliament to Respect Legal Standards on
Leyla Yunus and Nagorno-Karabakh
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 5, 2014
The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA, Elkhan
Suleymanov, has urged his European colleagues to respect legal
standards covering two issues of importance to Azerbaijan: the
criminal case against activist Leyla Yunus and the continued Armenian
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories.
In a bid to clarify what he says are inconsistencies on the part of
the European Parliament (EP) in both areas, he has written to its
President Martin Schulz challenging him for answers.
Firstly, Suleymanov asked Schulz to clarify his November call for
accused fraudster Yunus to be released "without delay". This, he said,
"disrespects judgments of the (Azerbaijani) courts" given she is
midway through a serious treason and corruption case, something that
wouldn't happen if an EU nation was involved.
"Could any prominent public and political figure demand to release a
person who is (being) investigated in the European zone?" he asked in
an open letter. "Certainly, the reaction would be negative. Then why
do you apply this model to Azerbaijan?"
Suleymanov said he is also concerned about "international legal
standards" being ignored by the European Parliament over the issue of
the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding
territories.
Despite the fact that the invasion more than two decades ago and the
continued occupation have in the past been deemed unlawful by a number
of international organisations, including the United Nations Security
Council and the European Parliament, such bodies are now reluctant to
call to account the aggressor state.
Schulz said in 2012, "I hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will overcome
their difficult conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh," and last year added
that they should solve it "themselves".
Suleymanov wrote that this shows he has forgotten "about the
importance of liberating the Azerbaijani territories from armed
Armenian occupation within the framework of internationally legal
standards."
He said bodies such as the EP should be just as concerned about the
violation of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity at the hands of
Armenia as they have been of Ukraine's loss of territorial integrity
at the hands of pro-Russian separatists.
In the spring of 2014 the EU joined the United States in imposing
tough sanctions on Russia as punishment for its involvement in the
Ukrainian crisis.
From: A. Papazian
December 5, 2014 Friday 5:09 AM EST
Azerbaijan Urges European Parliament to Respect Legal Standards on
Leyla Yunus and Nagorno-Karabakh
BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 5, 2014
The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA, Elkhan
Suleymanov, has urged his European colleagues to respect legal
standards covering two issues of importance to Azerbaijan: the
criminal case against activist Leyla Yunus and the continued Armenian
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories.
In a bid to clarify what he says are inconsistencies on the part of
the European Parliament (EP) in both areas, he has written to its
President Martin Schulz challenging him for answers.
Firstly, Suleymanov asked Schulz to clarify his November call for
accused fraudster Yunus to be released "without delay". This, he said,
"disrespects judgments of the (Azerbaijani) courts" given she is
midway through a serious treason and corruption case, something that
wouldn't happen if an EU nation was involved.
"Could any prominent public and political figure demand to release a
person who is (being) investigated in the European zone?" he asked in
an open letter. "Certainly, the reaction would be negative. Then why
do you apply this model to Azerbaijan?"
Suleymanov said he is also concerned about "international legal
standards" being ignored by the European Parliament over the issue of
the Armenian occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding
territories.
Despite the fact that the invasion more than two decades ago and the
continued occupation have in the past been deemed unlawful by a number
of international organisations, including the United Nations Security
Council and the European Parliament, such bodies are now reluctant to
call to account the aggressor state.
Schulz said in 2012, "I hope that Armenia and Azerbaijan will overcome
their difficult conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh," and last year added
that they should solve it "themselves".
Suleymanov wrote that this shows he has forgotten "about the
importance of liberating the Azerbaijani territories from armed
Armenian occupation within the framework of internationally legal
standards."
He said bodies such as the EP should be just as concerned about the
violation of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity at the hands of
Armenia as they have been of Ukraine's loss of territorial integrity
at the hands of pro-Russian separatists.
In the spring of 2014 the EU joined the United States in imposing
tough sanctions on Russia as punishment for its involvement in the
Ukrainian crisis.
From: A. Papazian