The Azerbaijan travel ban imposed on the PACE members will be lifted after the country's delegation returns to the organization, said the head of state in his response to the question by moderator of the International Cernobbio Forum.
President Ilham Aliyev underlined, “What happened this January was crossing the red line... We restored our sovereignty completely last year. So last September, separatism was totally eliminated from Azerbaijan’s territory. We did not do anything different from what Ukraine is trying to do. Ukraine is trying to restore its sovereignty without success, regardless of huge Western support. We restored our sovereignty without any support by ourselves. Just in several months after that, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe decided to deprive our delegation from its voting right. These were the sanctions imposed on us because we restored our sovereignty.”
The President noted that the decision to declare the PACE members as persona non-grata was adequate.
“So our decision was a response. If they change their decision and restore our right, in January they will have this chance, so this so-called embargo will be lifted,” the president added.
