Azerbaijan, Baku, May 25 / Trend M. Aliyev /
The European Parliament's resolution harms bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the European Parliament, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign and Interparliamentary Relations, head of the permanent Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Samad Seyidov told media today.
Considering the European Parliament's decision as biased and prejudiced, MP said that the progress achieved by Azerbaijan bothers those who do not like Azerbaijan.
"After Azerbaijan regained independence, it began integrating into Euro-Atlantic space," he said. "We have been cooperating with PACE, OSCE PA, the EU, the Islamic Conference and other influential international organizations since 2000. Today, Azerbaijan has been supported by 155 countries' votes. All this bothers those who dislike Azerbaijan. In fact, we faced these conflicting forces in 2000. We have always demonstrated tolerance and answered patiently and cautiously."
He said that some forces think that Islam and democracy contradict each other.
"About 80 - 85 percent of the Azerbaijani population fell to Muslim," he said. "The undeniable fact is the development of a democratic society, the priority of family values, living of representatives of different religions together."
"Human rights are grossly violated in most EU member states," he said. "There are the countries from which the European Court of Human Rights receives 7,000 complaints. Azerbaijan is not an EU member. This figure in Azerbaijan reaches 1,000. This fact points to those who live in a democratic and free society."
"The European Parliament's resolution makes it necessary to reconsider the relations with it," he said.
"The Azerbaijani delegation will raise this issue at the meetings of the PACE Monitoring Committee and the Committee on Political Affairs and Standing Committees to be held in Paris in late May and inform that the European Parliament has adopted a biased decision," Seyidov said.
Seyidov will not participate in these meetings.