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Azerbaijan takes over the chairmanship of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers on May 14, 2014, following years of relentless crackdown on criticism, the statement released by Human Rights Watch international organization and placed in its official website reads.

“The Council of Europe is the region’s foremost human rights body, but Azerbaijan’s chairmanship comes at a time when the government is blatantly flouting the organization’s core standards. The Council of Europe should make clear to Azerbaijan that it needs to free unjustly imprisoned government critics and undertake far-reaching rights reform” said Giorgi Gogia, senior South Caucasus researcher at Human Rights Watch.

The organization notes that in the past two years, Azerbaijani authorities have brought unfounded criminal charges against at least 38 political activists, journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders, most of whom are behind bars.

The circumstances of the criminal investigations and numerous violations in legal proceedings leave little doubt that the charges against these critics are bogus and intended to punish them for their activities.

A competent publication the Economist has also addressed the forthcoming chairmanship of Azerbaijan in Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. According to the article, few people worry about which country chairs the committee of ministers of the Council of Europe but with Azerbaijan one should worry.

As the article reads, Azerbaijan is rich in oil resources but the progress is an issue yet. Rigged elections and suppression of internal dissent mean that Azerbaijan’s democracy is little more than a sham.

The author states that Europe and the United States, reliant on Azerbaijan’s energy supplies, have largely looked the other way and the fact that Baku’s “caviar diplomacy” has been winning is alarming. Baku has actually stepped up its suppression of internal dissent in recent weeks. Dozens of youth activists have been imprisoned since January, supposedly for illegal arms possession and plotting mass disorder. The authorities as well detained two prominent human rights defenders on bogus espionage charges.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, on its turn, notes that Council of Europe is described as Europe’s top human rights body. However, according to human rights activists the credibility of Council of Europe is at stake, as from May 14 Azerbaijan takes over the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers.

“Azerbaijan's human rights record has been quite appalling for a number of years, and since the presidential elections in October last year it got even worse,” Denis Krivosheev, Europe and Central Asia Deputy Director at Amnesty International said.

According to him, people are imprisoned on false allegations for nothing other than trying to speak out against the government. “We are very seriously concerned that this is happening at a time when Azerbaijan is about to become the chair of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,” Denis Krivosheev said.

The article reads that 10 journalists are currently behind bars in Azerbaijan on charges widely seen as politically motivated. Earlier this month, a court sentenced 8 members of the youth organization NIDA to jail in terms ranging between 6 and 8 years. Human rights defender Leyla Yunus and her husband as well were detained, an Azerbaijani journalist Rauf Mirkadirov was arrested and accused of conducting espionage for Armenia. The Institute for Peace and Democracy notes that 130 people are currently jailed in the country for speaking out against the authorities.

Note that earlier Reporters without Borders organization in defense of the press made a statement which notes that Azerbaijan takes over the chairmanship of Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers with the worst level of press freedom index among 47 countries.