Armenia’s goal is to make Azerbaijan closer to European values, rather than to remove it from CoE – Gevorg Kostanyan

The Azerbaijani authorities’ non-implementation of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to release public figure Ilgar Mamadov is unacceptable, Gevorg Kostanyan – Armenia’s representative at the ECHR, told reporters on March 20․

“In connection with non-implementation of the ECHR decision to release public figure Ilgar Mamadov, Armenia’s delegation proposed at the ministers committee to discuss the issue of removing Azerbaijan from the Council of Europe. Not implementing the verdict is unacceptable as it means not showing a respect towards that person, the European values and democracy”, he said.

He said Armenia does not have a plan to remove Azerbaijan from the Council of Europe, but by this way it tries to make Azerbaijan closer to the European values the bearer of which is Armenia.

“Azerbaijan’s withdrawal from the Council of Europe will not be beneficial to Armenia since if that country is removed from the CoE, it will mean that Armenia will have a neighbor and adversary which will be incompatible with the European values. Therefore, our main goal is to make Azerbaijan closer to the European values, rather than to remove it from the CoE”, Kostanyan said.

The CoE ministerial committee launched a legal procedure against Azerbaijan in connection with not implementing the ECHR decision on releasing public figure Ilgar Mamadov.

According to the ECHR’s 2014 decision there have been no grounds to arrest Mamadov or keep him under custody until the trial. The Court stated that these actions have been made only because Mamadov criticized the Azerbaijani leadership.

On May 24, 2014 the ECHR called on to immediately release Ilgar Mamadov, but three years after this decision he still is arrested.