Aliyev’s regime causes evil, and not just to his own people. Fifteen years of Council of Europe membership has not improved the democracy and human rights situation in Azerbaijan. All the statements about the progress of democracy in Azerbaijan are a bluff, and the situation is degrading further.

Head of the Armenian delegation to PACE, Hermine Naghdalyan, who is also the Vice Speaker of the Armenian National Assembly (NA), said the aforementioned at PACE’s summer session, urging to suspend Azerbaijan’s membership to the organization.

“Dictatorship has no place in the Council of Europe, and the Parliamentary Assembly must be firm about eradicating this plague and stopping Aliyev’s regime ,” Naghdalyan said in her speech.

She also drew the attention of those present to the shortcomings and malfunctions in Azerbaijan with regard to freedom of expression, religion and association, as well as the wide-ranging crackdown on independent civil society, deficient integration policies for migrants and historical minorities, and problems with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

In this context, Naghdalyan specifically recalled the report published by the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance on 7 June.

Among the numerous problems in the country, the commission made specific reference to the policy of inciting hatred against Armenians, which is followed by Azerbaijan’s highest officials.

According to the report, “Political leaders, educational institutions and media have continued using hate speech against Armenians…An entire generation of Azerbaijanis has grown up listening to constant hateful rhetoric.”

Pursuant to the survey published in the report, 91 percent of Azerbaijani people perceive Armenia as Azerbaijan’s greatest enemy and feel real hatred towards everything Armenian. “The President of Azerbaijan and other high-ranking officials designate the entire Armenian nation as enemy No. 1, and what is normally a crime is considered a glorious deed in Azerbaijan,” Naghdalyan said.

“A vivid example is that of Safarov, the Azeri officer who murdered an Armenian coursemate in his sleep. The ECRI report says about that case that “the authorities pardoned, released and promoted Ramil Safarov, without taking into account the risk of cultivating a sense of impunity” for racist criminals.”

As another awful manifestation of xenophobic policies, Naghdalyan recalled the unprecedented military aggression that the Azerbaijani army unleashed against Nagorno-Karabakh in April this year, during which an Azeri soldier who beheaded an Armenian soldier and posted a photograph of the head on the internet – a cynical murder and a war crime – was decorated and promoted by the President of Azerbaijan.

She also noted that the Safarov case has been widely discussed and denounced in the PACE. “We adopted a resolution on measures to prevent the abuse of the European Convention on Human Rights, and the rapporteur on that occasion, our colleague Mr Chope, explained the possible harm that could stem from an inadequate reaction. However, there was not a sufficient reaction from the Parliamentary Assembly to stop Aliyev. Our silence encourages the Azerbaijani regime to commit further crimes,” Naghdalyan concluded.