The PACE’s call to exclude Azerbaijan from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) should be understood in a broader context implying the termination of the country’s membership in the Council of Europe (CoE), the head of the Armenian Delegation to the ECHR has said, commenting on the recent statement released by the Assembly.

“What the Parliamentary Assembly says deals virtually with excluding [the country] from the European Court [of Human Rights], but the process is different in essence.

“Azerbaijan cannot possibly cease being subject to the European court’s jurisdiction while remaining in the Council of Europe. Hence [the entire process] deals with ending its membership in the Council of Europe, not the Court,” he said in an interview with Tert.am.

Kostanyan said they now rely on the CoE Regulations as a guarantee offering effective mechanisms. “It may really be very effective given that the CoE Regulations envisage such an opportunity and necessity to initiate a process of terminating a state’s membership whenever it fails to abide by a judgement. The Armenian Delegation relied upon the CoE Regulations while proposing such a process in spring. It is very realistic; we just need to be consistent,” he added.

Kostanyan also cited CoE Secretary General’s earlier call for releasing Ilgar Mammadov, the Azerbaijani opposition activist sentenced to seven years in prison in 2014. “What comes next is actually the reaction by the Parliamentary Assembly as a political body. And that implies that politically too, time has matured to exclude Azerbaijan from the Council.

“Another extremely important moment here is that we do not propose debates in the Committee of Ministers over Azerbaijan’s non-execution of the Court’s judgements. It cannot be that effective unless we see same approach by the political pillar. Hence, it is the Parliamentary Assembly’s effort to demonstrate such an approach that made the issue more real and more actual,” he noted.