YEREVAN. –The “smell of caviar” is being cleared from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

Ruben Rubinyan, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly (NA) of Armenia and head of the NA delegation to PACE, on Tuesday stated about the above-mentioned at a briefing in the Armenian parliament.

Answering the question as to whether the “smell of caviar”—that is, Azerbaijan’s notorious “caviar diplomacy”—was increasing at PACE, the MP noted that this “smell” was very weak now and will be quickly “aired out.”

“Especially now the process of lobbying and bribery has become difficult at PACE,” Rubinyan noted. “At any rate, at this point it can’t be said that the situation [at PACE] is like before.”

Vladimir Vardanyan, member of the NA delegation to PACE and head of the NA Standing Committee on State and Legal Affairs, in turn, noted that there can be no word about a “caviar diplomacy” any longer because Azerbaijan’s negative conduct is mentioned in various reports.

“One of the examples: Not long before the [PACE] session, [Azerbaijan President Ilham] Aliyev pardoned political prisoners, and they—the Azerbaijani human rights activists—have linked that to the session,” Vardanyan said.

In his words, the subcommittee within the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights has rejected the Azerbaijani delegation’s list of candidates for the Committee for the Prevention of Torture.

“That (...) attests to the fact that the ‘caviar diplomacy’ no longer works,” Vladimir Vardanyan added, in particular. “In general, some [PACE] MPs say that they can’t stand the ‘smell of caviar.’”