The TV channel Russia 1 showed a reportage in the weekly program Vesti Nedeli about the biased attitude of the European Parliament toward Azerbaijan. According to the resolution adopted last week, Baku was accused of constant violation of human rights in the country. Vestnik Kavkaza offers its readers and viewers to read this reportage.
On Monday, the senior legislative body of Azerbaijan, the Milli Majlis, adopted a resolution according to which Baku will break off relations with the European Parliament. This was in response to a resolution by the European Parliament, in which Azerbaijan was accused of constant violation of human rights in the country, as well as unprecedented repressions in respect of civil society.’’ Commenting on the incident, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev supported his parliamentarians and described the European resolution as a "completely unfounded political provocation based on lies, slander and bias.’’
"Firstly, before making accusations, look at yourself. The fate of refugees is clear today. The world can clearly see that refugees are migrating from the Middle East to Europe. These people are the victims of external interference. Their countries were destroyed. Who did that? External forces destroyed these countries, violated their territorial integrity, destroyed hundreds of thousands of people. Millions of people lost their relatives. And now look at the situation in Europe – Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia. Are these European values? Would it be better if the European Parliament dealt with these issues?’’ Ilham Aliyev said.
In general, if you take a detached view, it is quite clear that Azerbaijan is among the countries where the dominant religion is Islam. It belongs to the most secular states. Such a radical tone of the European Parliament in relation to Baku is hardly justified and largely unexpected. This tone of the West is typical in respect of those countries whose independent position thwarts the Americans. That is why they use the Eurocrats.
Anton Liadov from Azerbaijan said: "The news about sanctions against Azerbaijan due to unprecedented repressions regarding European tourists was spread at the time of dancing to Azerbaijani folklore.
"There are incredibly friendly people,’’ says Katie Imiya from Germany, answering a journalist's remark: ‘‘It is said in Europe that this is a very terrible place.’’ "No, people in Europe just don’t know much about Azerbaijan."
Taking into account the fact that the European parliamentarians adopted the resolution quickly, they clearly thought otherwise. Without leaving their offices they made 24 points on which Azerbaijan doesn’t respect human rights. President Ilham Aliyev responded personally to the threat of the European Parliament to introduce targeted sanctions and stop issuing visas to Azerbaijani officials, officials and even judges: "For us, and me as President, this resolution adopted by the European Parliament is no more than a piece of paper. I don’t attach any importance to this. And certainly, I condemn this. I want to tell the external circles, which want to subdue Azerbaijan, that all your efforts are in vain. Not one external power can put pressure on an independent Azerbaijanian policy formed in the national interests.’’
Ilham Aliyev
In drawing up the document, the European Parliament didn't neglect empty accusations and false arguments. Azerbaijan is accused of murdering of journalist Rasim Aliyev, who criticized the current government. But this is an outright lie. On July 30th during a football match between Azerbaijan and Cyprus one of the players scored a goal and then made an obscene gesture to fans. Rasim wrote on the Internet: "This athlete shouldn't represent the country." Reporters found Rasim’s mother and father.
‘‘They gathered around him and started to beat him. It was done in order to punish him,’’ says Ali Mamed Aliyev, father of the late Rasim Aliyev.
‘’Were there any political motives?" a journalist asks. Aliyev's mother, Teyfura Aliyeva, answers: "No, no. That’s not the issue. Rasim wasn't involved in politics."
''Europe and the West also have their own interests, but it doesn’t concern us," says his father, Ali Mamed Aliyev.
Six people were detained, including the football player.
The Chairman of the Azerbaijani Parliamentary Committee on International Relations, head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, Samad Seyidov, said: "The resolution was artificially politicized. It was an absolutely domestic crime. This technique was tested a long time ago. This technique is one of the ways to create a negative image, and put pressure on the country. They are trying to show who is the boss in this house.
Samad Seyidov
Another requirement of the European Parliament is an urgent restoration of non-governmental organizations in Azerbaijan. However, we have already lived through this. We know how these NGOs are used and what happens when foreign agents intrude on internal politics. Azerbaijan saw this at the time of the presidential election in 2013. They regularly organized mass disorders with the help of Western money. "A crowd gathers on a small patch in the center of town very quickly and then buses bring groups of 20-30 people,’’ the head of Trend news agency, Elmira Tariverdiyeva, describes the technique of the action.
They were gathered on Fountain Square under the pretext of marching against the tyranny of the army. But in less than an hour, they decided to call for the government to be dismissed. Each row consisted of 10 people. They raised their right fists and moved slowly in order for people with cameras and video cameras to have time to catch them. They wore dark jackets. The coordinators wore white clothes. A man who was ahead ensured that the right wing wouldn't come off. It turned out that the man wearing a white shirt was Ruslan Asad, a staff member of the US organization National Democratic Institute (NDI), whose headquarters are located in Washington DC. Representatives of the organization admitted later that the meeting had been prepared beforehand. 200,000 messages were sent to young activists via social networks. They also fixed personal meetings with promising candidates. Training sessions for young oppositionists were carried out in one of the best hotels. They received students from all regions of Azerbaijan weekly. Classes lasted from early morning until late evening. A whole floor was rented, the training was held in the main conference hall.
The Chairman of the Central Asian and South Caucasian branch of Freedom of Expression, Azer Hasret, visited NDI seminars together with 80 other people. When he realized that they were training to overthrow the authorities, he gave up his studies and carried out his own investigation. Azer Hasret shows a document from the bank: "a representative of the American organization Alexis Vergules received cash amounting to one million dollars. Here you can see the schedule of obtaining money: 12 January 2013 – the beginning of social unrest. And these huge amounts of $10 thousand, $45 thousand, $47 thousand, $28 thousand, $31 thousand were received before the mass disorders.
The requirement to give NGOs an opportunity to receive money from abroad is the ninth point of the European resolution. They ask for it about six weeks before the parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan. Under the pretext that foreign intervention is supposedly the only way to freedom. The Ukrainian scenario in Europe is now in vogue. They say it is the only way to achieve democracy.
The parliamentarians didn’t explain in the resolution why people in Azerbaijan run from this democracy. Over the past year and a half, the best Ukrainian athletes, who represented the country at all international competitions, have moved to Baku. There is devastation in Kiev: no money, no sports facilities, no qualified coaches. A gymnast from Zaporozhye, Oleg Stepko, his colleague Peter Pahnyuk from Kiev, as well as karateka Irina Zaretsky represent Azerbaijan now. Inna Osipenko-Rodomskaya is a unique athlete and Olympic champion in rowing. Over the last 10 years she won medals for Ukraine in a kind of sport in which Ukraine has never had strong athletes. But the state left her. "I lost my patience because I was deceived. On January 1st we didn't receive a penny for food. Kiev explained that they have no money because of the difficult situation in the country. We borrowed money in order to organize all the training sessions. I was promised that they would pay money out, but that didn’t happen," Osipenko-Radom said.
European leaders personally promised a new life in Ukraine, visiting the Maidan as their job. They have demonstratively stopped visiting Azerbaijan. The most recent example was three months ago, when they organized a boycott regarding the first European Games in history that were held in Baku. However, it didn’t prevent the competitions from being held at the highest level. Athletes from 50 countries arrived in Baku. Armenian athlete George Manukyan won silver in boxing despite the fact that Azerbaijan has a long-standing conflict with Armenian. The athlete was awarded personally by President Ilham Aliyev. When onlookers tried to boo the boxer, the President personally calmed the fans down.
Elmira Tariverdiyeva
‘‘Azerbaijan is probably the only Muslim country today that remains stable. In particular, the growing trade turnover with Russia cannot help arousing the displeasure of the West, which imposes sanctions against Russia," the head of the Russian service of the Trend nwws agency Elmira Tariverdiyeva said.
Fikret Sadikhov, political scientist, Professor of the Western University, an expert on international relations, states: ‘‘It is obvious that our relations with Russia annoy somebody. We have almost similar positions regarding the Syrian migrants. The Middle East has been destroyed. It started with Tunisia and then transferred to Libya and intervention in Iraq."
The Resolution of the European Parliament is just a reaction to the fact that for several years Azerbaijan refused to get closer to NATO, the expert says. Offers are made regularly. The biggest one was permission for the Alliance to land aircraft transporters on their bases. There are import conditions only in respect of non-flying goods. Everything except for weapons. NATO is not satisfied with this situation. NATO aircraft land regularly on the military airfield in eastern Azerbaijan. They use it as an advance airfield. Then loads are sent across the Caspian Sea to the territory of Afghanistan. Last year, when the war in Ukraine was in full swing, NATO leaders signed a secret document in order to increase the volume its equipment in Azerbaijan. Spiegel published some excerpts from his document. The main idea was an urgent expansion of cooperation with Azerbaijan, the main purpose was "to give a clear signal to Russia."
In response, Baku established its own production of sniper rifles, and the matter of joining NATO wasn't even raised. At the same time, relations with Russia continue to strengthen annually. Since the beginning of 2015 the trade turnover between the countries has increased by 6%. And this is not the limit, experts believe. There are a lot of Azerbaijani fruits and vegetables on the Russian market. Fruits and vegetables are delivered according to a simplified scheme, through the green channel at customs, not by means of bales as was the case before. At the same time billions of cubic meters of gas could be delivered from Russia to Azerbaijan by the end of the year, Gazprom is holding talks with the Baku oil company.
