The legal experts of the Council of Europe – the Venice Commission – gave a rather negative assessment on and greatly slammed the constitutional changes in Azerbaijan.

Member of the Armenian delegation to PACE, NAira Karapetyan, said the aforementioned in her speech at PACE on Monday, Armenian News – NEWS.am special correspondent reports from Strasbourg.

In her address, Karapetyan stated the following:

“Dear colleagues,

We are all here for the same reason, for democracy. It has many ways of implementation and many ways of expression, but the main and the only way is to go forward, to go towards the democracy.

In many [Council of Europe] member-states different steps are being taken during this period but I would like to especially draw your attention to the ‘constitutional’ referendum in Azerbaijan.

This is not the issue between our two countries, but the problem of the Council of Europe. If there is a state among us which makes huge steps back from the democracy, what should we do here, in the cradle of democracy?

The opinion by the CoE constitutional law experts –the Venice Commission – criticizing modification to the constitution of Azerbaijan, which was put on referendum on September  26, can be considered very strict.

The Venice Commission targets many proposed amendments severely upsetting the balance of power by giving unprecedented powers to the President, for example the extension of the presidential mandate, reducing age limitation for President and MPs, as well as the introduction of the figure of the so-called unelected Vice Presidents appointed by the   President, etc. The Venice Commission is also concerned about issues related to human rights. The Commission criticizes the fact that although permitted by the current procedure for modifying the constitution, and the draft was put to referendum directly without any involvement of the parliament. The Commission is also concerned about the limitation clauses, in particular those which may affect the freedom of speech, the freedom of assembly and freedom of associations.

According to the modifications, the role of Presidents weakens affected independence of judiciary, since the parliament’s role in the approval of judges will be reduced.  It should be noted that Azerbaijan didn’t cooperate with the Venice Commission in the process of implementating the modifications. By the letter of September 6, the Chair of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), on behalf of the Bureau of the PACE, requested the opinion of the Venice Commission on the draft modifications to the constitution of Azerbaijan. As you see, there are only 20 days to read it. Regardless of the criticism, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has sent a 7-member assessment mission.

Dear colleagues,

I really wonder how the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe can by its presence in the elections legitimize this referendum. How can PACE observers have any opinion on elections without looking at the content of the voted document? What does it mean to discuss Venice Commission conclusions post factum, after the constitution has been already voted?

Is this the real form of democracy? Certainly not. Are these the values of the European family? Certainly not. And will this bring us to establishing democratic and free society? Certainly not.”