Baku. Ramiz Mikayiloglu – APA. Interview with Ali Hasanov, Azerbaijani president's aide for public and political affairs
Q. United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defender Michel Forst has announced the organization’s report on Azerbaijan. What’s your attitude towards the report?
A. I have to say Azerbaijan is in active cooperation with various international and non-governmental organizations and has gained great experience in this area. At different times, there have been different attitudes to the reports developed and issued by them on various spheres in our country. The unbiased and real reports have always been discussed with those organizations and real steps have been taken to eliminate shortcomings, if there were any. Nevertheless, Azerbaijan has never accepted the documents consisting of subjective opinions and based on biased and unserious claims and continues to stick to its principled position. I have to say a report by any international organizations, especially a supreme institution like the UN, should be developed independently, it should be balanced and based on accurate and verified facts and it should take into account both positive and negative factors in every sphere. Unfortunately, the report by Michel Forst is not balanced, the claims, especially, the “facts” about imprisonments, media outlets and NGOs were not checked, and Azerbaijani government’s stance was not inquired about and was not taken into account. The remarks reflected in the “reports” of foreign NGOs such as Freedom House, which have a negative attitude towards Azerbaijan, were just copied to this document. Talking about human rights, the special rapporteur had to take into account the violation of rights of more than one million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs and include it in the document. But regretfully, the refugee problem, which is an important issue for Azerbaijan, was not taken into account. It is no coincidence that during the press conference, Michel Forst, referring to his mandate, said that he would not touch upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and its consequences. This is indicative of his anti-Azerbaijan and pro-Armenian position. The matter concerns not the authorities under the mandate, but the negative impact of the humanitarian situation which has emerged in Azerbaijan as a result of the occupation by Armenia. This is an issue that anyone dealing with international law, including a UN rapporteur, should be concerned about.
I believe that in his report on Armenia, Forst will try to almost equalize the situation in this country to that of Switzerland, Germany or France. It is doubtful that this report will cover such issues as total violation of human rights in Armenia, pressure on NGOs and other issues.
The UN special rapporteur also made a serious mistake by claiming there is a lack of dialogue between the government and the civil society sector in Azerbaijan. This is because Forst met with only the NGOs in Azerbaijan that suit his interests. The main reason is that Forst met only with the NGOs which he needed in Azerbaijan. The reports of those NGOs usually hide the information about that the government consistently arranges meetings with representatives of civil society institutions, learn their problems and take steps to resolve them. As for the remarks on the amendments to the laws regulating NGO activities, I have to say that ensuring of transparency in the activity of civic society institutions in the first place must be in the interest of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
When coming to the imprisonments, the remarks made by Forst suggest that he didn’t become familiar with the nature of the crimes and contents on those crimes. Otherwise he would not have said “…faced criminal charges for sharing his thoughts on the Internet” about a person who is imprisoned for concrete criminal acts. This is, at least, a matter of professionalism. And also, Forst would not have blamed on the government the situation of any media outlet that has stopped operating because of financial difficulties. The report and the special rapporteur’s logic have so many controversies, inaccuracies, and distortions that Forst’s professionalism seems dubious. Therefore, the report of the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Michel Forst doesn’t reflect the Azerbaijani realities, is biased and is ordered.
Q. You have mentioned that this report is ordered. What is reason behind this?
A. You know that Azerbaijan is a democratic, rule-of-law state. All the issues in the country are settled by the law, and the separation of powers provides a balance between the legislative, executive and judiciary powers. The freedom of speech and information, the freedom of assembly and other freedoms have been secured in Azerbaijan. Hundreds of media outlets, non-governmental organizations, tens of political parties operate [in Azerbaijan], they are remarkable for their activeness in social and political processes, and they openly voice their positions. Azerbaijan will hold a referendum for making additions and changes to the country’s Constitution on Sept. 26. The Constitution reforms reflect the intense novelties that have taken place in recent years in political, social, economic and legal areas [in the country]. This initiative is aimed at improving governance, creating a wider framework for the protection of human rights and freedoms, deepening the reforms underway and ensuring their effectiveness. The behavior of some foreign circles already gives reason to say that the forces becoming active and targeting Azerbaijan on the eve of important events for our people are once again demonstrating their special attitude towards our country. It is no accidental that on September 20, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued its biased opinion on the upcoming referendum. Typically, the Venice Commission does not hastily issue its opinion on any draft law, it studies the position of the opposite side. But this time the organization has violated all the procedures related to the draft referendum, hastily developed and issued its opinion on the referendum in just to weeks at the request of PACE president. Thus, the Azerbaijani side has been denied the right to express its position. Immediately after the Venice Commission, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights released a report targeting Azerbaijan. It is not excluded that other organizations and foreign NGO network will also issue similar statements and reports in the next few days. I believe that all this is part of process, controlled from a single center, and is an ordered campaign aimed at influencing the political position of Azerbaijan’s authorities and the will of the people in connection with the referendum. I don’t think that these efforts will yield results. The Azerbaijani authorities rely on the interests of the people, bear responsibility before the people and build its policy based on sustainable development, social welfare, strengthening of statehood and security and problem-solving in the context of national interests and other criteria. The people of Azerbaijan fully support the policy of President Ilham Aliyev. Therefore, all efforts aimed at deviating Azerbaijan from the right path of development are doomed to fail.
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