Your trusted source

On June 4 the Azerbaijani news agencies, including one of the largest pro-government agencies "1news.az" and the "Aze.az" portal spread misinformation that PACE adopted a resolution which allegedly states that "Armenia is an aggressor state."

At the same time the Azerbaijani agencies refer to this document as a "proof" of this misinformation. It is also noted that 31 PACE MPs signed the document.

Note, however, that the document on which the Azerbaijani media refers, is dated on May 15 and concerns the transition of the presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to Armenia. Moreover, the document clearly states that "the proposal has not been discussed in the Assembly and applies to the MPs who had signed it." Thus, these MPs only offered to adopt the resolution.

Note that in the list of signatories the name of the infamous MP Mike Hancock from the United Kingdom is on the first line; those who signed the document are members of the crisis-ridden Spain (12 people), Italy, Belgium, Poland. It is noteworthy that there is not a single delegate from countries such as France or Germany among them.

In early June, the former PACE co-rapporteur on Azerbaijan, current member of PACE Andreas Gross has confirmed in the interview with the Azerbaijani service of Radio "Liberty" that the Azerbaijani delegation has often resorted to the "caviar diplomacy” to promote its interests in the PACE. Gross stated that he also had received gifts.

In May 2012 the "European Stability Initiative" published a study entitled "Caviar Diplomacy: how could Azerbaijan get the silence of the Council of Europe", where the detailed chronology of the mechanisms of bribing members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe by the ruling regime of Azerbaijan was stated.