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PACE President: â€œWe believe that parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan will be more democratic and transparent than previous onesâ€

14 April 2010 17:27 (UTC +04:00)

Mevlut Cavusoglu said the aim of his visit was to hold discussions on the process of democratization in the country and the activities carried out with regard to Azerbaijanâ€™s commitments vis-Ã -vis the Council of Europe. He said the Council of Europe would assist the process of democratization, try to help Azerbaijan integrate into the European standards like other member states.
â€œNext year we will mark the 10th anniversary of Azerbaijanâ€™s membership of the Council of Europe. But for us the best present that Azerbaijan can give on the occasion of the 10th anniversary is to hold democratic and transparent elections in autumn. This will be the biggest victory for us. The officials that we met also said the elections will be democratic. I met with President Ilham Aliyev, speaker of the parliament, foreign minister, representatives of the political parties. We also delivered to President the proposals of the opposition parties concerning the forthcoming elections, laws,â€ he said.

Cavusoglu expressed his confidence that the parliamentary elections would be held democratically: â€œItâ€™s because of atmosphere of the meetings Iâ€™ve held here. But it will depend on the steps to be taken henceforth. We think these elections will be more democratic and transparent than previous ones. We want to believe it and we believe it. We had open discussions over all issues. We saw that the Government of Azerbaijan was committed to the implementation of commitments taken to the Council of Europe. There were productive discussions on important steps that Azerbaijan will take towards the fulfillment of commitments during my presidencyâ€.

Cavusoglu stated that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was also in the focus of attention during the visit and added that the Council of Europe has open and exact position on this issue: â€œAs the Council of Europe, we have moved forward to establish the Sub-Committee at the Parliamentary Assembly in order to contribute to this peace process. We will establish this committee soon and I will head this committeeâ€.

Cavusoglu also stated that he would visit Ganja as well.