STRASBOURG — After a marathon of amendment voting, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) approved its resolution on “the functioning of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan” by 140 votes to 13. The resolution was prepared by Pedro Agramunt and Tadeusz Iwinski.

The Assembly voted 85 to 78 to accept the amendment tabled by the Armenian delegation to exclude the term”occupation” with regard to Nagorno Karabakh.

The Parliamentary Assembly says in the final text of the Resolution it “is fully aware of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which dominates to a large extent the Azerbaijani foreign policy agenda.” In the draft reaolution it read: “The Assembly is fully aware of the occupation by Armenia of NagornoKarabakh and seven other provinces of Azerbaijan, which dominates to a large extent the Azerbaijani foreign policy agenda.”

In the resolution, PACE condemned “the crackdown on human rights in Azerbaijan” and called to end “systemic repression” of human rights defenders, the media, and those critical of the government, including politically motivated prosecutions.

The Assembly also called for the release of all political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Reacting to the PACE resolution, Samad Seyidov, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, said the adopted document was “an empty and unnecessary piece of paper”.

Seyidov said the resolution was also the work of anti-Azerbaijani forces and the Armenian lobby who are “ready to take any steps and even to destroy themselves in order to underestimate the ongoing developments in Azerbaijan”.