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Abbas Ganbay

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"Frank Schwabe, a member of the German Bundestag, recently spoke out against Azerbaijan as a clown," a statement from the Western Azerbaijan Community says, Azernews reports.

The statement also said:

"The anger of a loser like F. Schwabe shows once again that Azerbaijan has defeated not only the invading Armenia but also all the forces behind it, and it is for this reason that these circles now want to take revenge on Azerbaijan.

But history shows that such crusaders as F. Schwabe cannot influence the will of Azerbaijan in the slightest degree".

Recall that Azerbaijan's president has said that his country may consider leaving top European bodies, such as the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Court of Human Rights.

The warning came soon after the country's delegation quit the CoE's parliamentary assembly (PACE) as the body was about to reject its credentials, and amid general crises with the West.

On February 1, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Martin Chungong. The IPU is a union of national parliaments of countries around the world.

In remarks at the meeting quoted by the presidential website, Aliyev reacted for the first time to PACE's move to push out the Azerbaijani delegation. He called the move "anti-Azerbaijani" and said that it was initiated by a minority group "which does not serve dialogue and is overall in opposition to the traditions of a parliamentary platform."

The idea to vote the Azerbaijani delegation out was raised by German MP Frank Schwabe and supported by thirty members of the Assembly.

Aliyev said that if the rights of the Azerbaijani delegation at PACE are not restored, Baku will consider pulling out altogether from the CoE and the European Court of Human Rights, according to the website.

In voting out the Azerbaijani delegation on January 24, PACE concluded that the country has "not fulfilled major commitments" stemming from its joining the Council of Europe in 2001.

"Very serious concerns remain as to [Azerbaijan's] ability to conduct free and fair elections, the separation of powers, the weakness of its legislature vis-à-vis the executive, the independence of the judiciary and respect for human rights, as illustrated by numerous judgments of the European Court of Human Rights and opinions of the Venice Commission," PACE said in its resolution.

The decision only concerns Azerbaijan's parliamentary delegation and the country remains a member of the CoE - for now.

Aliyev's threat to quit the CoE and human rights court comes amid deteriorating relations with Western countries and institutions.

In late December, the French ambassador to Azerbaijan was summoned to the foreign ministry, and two embassy employees were declared persona non grata and expelled "for actions incompatible with their diplomatic status and which contradicted the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations." France rejected the allegation and retaliated the following day by expelling two Azerbaijani diplomats.

While Azerbaijani officials did not specify what the French diplomats had supposedly done wrong, pro-government media earlier asserted that the country's law enforcement had exposed a spy network working for France.

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