Azerbaijan Demands Urgent Action Against ISIS Brutality in Iraq and Syria

BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Amid the shocking images of beheadings and mass executions by ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Azerbaijan has called for an urgent meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to deal with the threat posed by the rampant terror group.

Azerbaijan presently holds the chairmanship of the Committee, a body it believes is well-placed to discuss the ISIS threat as a matter of urgency.

Elkhan Suleymanov, Chairman of the Azerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA and member of the Azerbaijani Delegation to PACE, said such a meeting could address what he believes is unacceptable inaction by the world community that "does not have a common strategy."

"The world community should take urgent political, diplomatic, military and other measures to overcome attacks by ISIS and to prevent inhumane behaviour against innocent people in Iraq and Syria," he said.

"Regretfully, we don't see it."

He believes a key reason for this inaction is a broad tolerance of Muslim suffering within the western world; noting that while Christians and other religious groups also suffer, "Muslims are disproportionately exposed to such brutality."

"In my opinion, this is why the international community doesn't take urgent measures," he added.

Suleymanov is also critical of the "selective" western media, which, he says, rightly covers the appalling violence in Iraq but pays little attention to other conflicts, including the recent bloodshed on the frontline of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. During the summer, Armenian troops violated the ceasefire, leaving dozens of Azerbaijani troops dead.

He said such suffering over the past 23 years - including the 1992 Khojaly massacre in which more than 600 men, women and children were killed - has strengthened his nation's resolve to prevent such atrocities in the future.

The Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding provinces of Azerbaijan have been occupied by Armenia for more than two decades, despite resolutions by the United Nations and other international bodies demanding that Armenia withdraw its forces from the region.

"Azerbaijan has suffered from terror and massacres at the hands of the Armenians. The Azerbaijani Government perseveres in the struggle against terrorism in all its forms and has joined the international antiterrorist coalition," Suleymanov said.

Suleymanov has challenged the international community to be more forthright in dealing with the violence in Iraq than it has been with the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.