During the winter session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the head of the Azeri delegation Samad Seyidov was elected one of the 18 PACE co-chairs. He also became a member of the PACE Bureau.
PACE had even punished Samad Seyidov once before, since he had been accused of conspiring with former President of PACE Pedro Agramunt, and with being involved in corruption scandals. Seyidov had been prevented from speaking in PACE for two years.
Aravot asked member of the Armenian delegation Edmon Marukyan how it was possible that Samad Seyidov, who had been involved in a corruption scandal, could be elected co-chair, when Armenia does not even have a representative in the PACE leadership or in the Bureau, and whether or not this is dangerous for us. “Samad Seyidov became co-chair through the rotation method. It was his turn, so he was elected, and he automatically became a member of the Bureau. We don’t have a representative because our turn has passed. Last year, our representative was Arpine Hovhannisyan, and before that it was Hermine Naghdalyan. This is a process decided by rotations, and we can’t have any impact on it.”
Regarding dangers, Marukyan said, “Of course, it’s not good that Azerbaijan has a representative in the Bureau and we don’t, so we have to pay attention so that his being there has no impact on us and on Armenian issues.”
Tatev Harutyunyan
