'Denial of justice' Azerbaijani MP comments on Russian aggression during PACE meeting
Azerbaijani MP Erkin Gadirli in PACE
Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Azerbaijani MP Erkin Gadirli touched upon the issue of impunity for the calls and speeches of Russian politicians. He also drew the attention of European parliamentarians to the facts of rape in Ukraine by Russian invaders. “We are at the stage of denying international law, its legal nature”, Gadirli said.
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Erkin Gadirli, a member of the Azerbaijani parliament from the opposition Republican Alternative Party, drew the attention of European parliamentarians to the impunity of Russian politicians who threaten the sovereignty of other countries.
Speaking at a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the deputy of the Milli Majlis also touched upon the problem of rape of women and children in Ukraine by Russian invaders.
“Various international crimes are being committed on the territory of Ukraine. Crimes against humanity, war crimes. Based on reports coming from Bucha, Irpin, and elsewhere, we would be right to say that there are grounds for recognizing some of these crimes as genocidal. But besides all this, there are crimes worthy of special attention – these are rape cases”, said Gadirli.
According to him, international crimes are divided into two categories – “crimes according to the international law and crimes against international law”.
“The overwhelming majority of international crimes belong to the first group. Those are the ones defined by the relevant international treaties – terrorism, illegal use of certain types of weapons, human trafficking, drug trafficking, etc. These are crimes according to international law.
Aggression is a crime of its own kind. It is not a crime according to the international law, but against international law. It is based on a fundamental denial of international law as a legal phenomenon.
It is one thing if someone is frustrated by the ineffectiveness of international law and we all know that international law is far from perfect, in fact very weak and often abused by powerful states. But the denial of the legal nature of international law is completely different”, the Azerbaijani MP stressed.
“There is a word in the Russian language – “beznakazannost”. It is translated into English as “impunity”. This is a correct translation, but part of the meaning of the word is lost here. “Impunity” implies that there either is no legally provided punishment – or there is one, but someone manages to escape it, or, for some reason, is excluded from it. But along with this, the word “impunity” in Russian also means that there can be no punishment in principle. impossibility of any punishment in principle – either in the law, in morality, or even in the eyes of the public opinion.
Therefore, we often hear from Russian politicians calls like “we will bomb Warsaw”, “our tanks will once again be in Prague”, “Berlin will beg us”, “the Baltic countries are fake states”, and “Ukraine never existed”, etc. One of them, Mikhail Delyagin, a member of the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, went even further and said that “Russia could, and even should, use tactical nuclear weapons against Azerbaijan”.
Do you know why? Because Azerbaijan provides humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. These words should not be said so lightly and simply. We are at the stage of denying international law, its legal nature”, Erkin Gadirli concluded.
