YEREVAN, OCTOBER 10, ARMENPRESS. Member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, MP representing the RPA Naira Karapetyan delivered a speech at the PACE session, touching upon the issue of legitimizing the recent referendum in Azerbaijan by the PACE.

“Armenpress” reports Karapetyan mentioned in her speech, “Dear colleges, the goal of all of us here, at the Council of Europe, is to establish a full democracy.

Many CoE member states have taken various measures leading to democracy, but I want to draw your attention on the so-called “constitutional” referendum recently held in CoE member state Azerbaijan. I have to mention that this is not an issue of our two countries, but it is an issue the CoE should deal with. If there is a country amongst us that overtly and by huge steps rejects democracy, what shall we do here, in the cradle of democracy?

Council of Europe’s experts in constitutional law, the Venice Commission, has made an extremely negative conclusion and strictly condemned the constitutional changes in Azerbaijan.

The key concern of the Venice Commission is the creation of a huge imbalance of powers caused by this referendum that grants unprecedented powers to the president of the state. Most dangerous aspects are the prolongation of the presidential tenure, decrease of the age limitation for being elected a president or MP, and particularly the process of appointing the vice-presidents and the state governance conducted exclusively by the president. The Venice Commission is also concerned by the problem with human rights.

The Venice Commission condemns the fact that the constitutional referendum was held without any discussions or inclusion of the Milli Məclis, the parliament of Azerbaijan.

The Commission is also concerned by the limitation of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

According to the changes, the role of the parliament significantly weakens, impacting the freedom of the judiciary, since the power of the parliament for confirming judges drastically decreases.

The Venice Commission expresses special concern over the proposed institutional reforms. Prolongation of the presidential tenure to 7 years can be in no way justified considering the already existing powers of the president.

It should be mentioned that Azerbaijan did not collaborate with the Venice Commission during the process of the changes”, Naira Karapetyan said, adding that despite the criticism, the PACE sent a group of 7 people to conduct “assessment mission”.

“Dear colleges, I am really interested how the PACE could legitimize this anti-democratic referendum by its presence? How could the PACE observers make conclusions without considering the content of the document. How to understand the post factum discussion of the Venice Commission’s conclusion?

Is this the real democracy? I am convinced, not. Are those the values of the European family? I am convinced, not. Will it lead us to the establishment of a democratic and free society? I am convinced, not.

Thank you”.