Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Head of OSCE Office in Baku, Ambassador Koray Targay: â€œWe will try to keep the issue of generally accepted mass action places on agendaâ€ - INTERVIEW

Head of OSCE Office in Baku, Ambassador Koray Targay: â€œWe will try to keep the issue of generally accepted mass action places on agendaâ€ - <font color=red>INTERVIEW</font>

09 September 2011 08:59 (UTC +04:00)

- What are current priorities and main action directions of the OSCE Office in Azerbaijan?

- According to the mandate of the OSCE Office in Baku, we continue cooperation with the government and parliament of Azerbaijan, civil society, and mass media you represented and we support all efforts for democratic reforms in Azerbaijan. Regarding the main action directions, I can distinguish the freedom of speech and press, strengthening fundamental freedom of assembly, court and legal reforms, improvement of legislation, gender equality, improvement of police work, combating trafficking in human beings, strengthening of progressive administration, support of small and medium-size ownership, as well as protection of environment.

- The OSCE Office in Baku carries out various projects in Azerbaijan. What spheres are covered by relevant projects this year and what is amount of the Officeâ€™s annual budget?

- The OSCE Office in Baku spends its annual budget to the elaboration and implementation of the projects in all three OSCE formats (military-political, economic-environmental and human). Indeed answering the first question I mentioned some of our projects. I would like also to underline monitoring of courts. We are preparing a report on the result of monitoring conducted in 2010. Our Office conducts monitoring in penitentiary and detention facilities too. Different training courses are organized for the judges and lawyers, NGOs, journalists and owners. We have joint activities with the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Problems concerning the implementation of newly-adopted Law on the Prevention of Domestic Violence. A number of environmental projects were supported within the Civil Action Program for Security and Environment. Together with the countryâ€™s relevant institutions and representatives of civil society, our Office carried out some projects on combating trafficking in human beings. We have many projects and next year the OSCE Office in Baku will continue its wide-range activities.

- During the past years the OSCE Office in Baku has been an initiator of government-opposition dialogue in Azerbaijan. Are you expected to continue these initiatives and what will be on its agenda further?

- A dialogue is the OSCEâ€™s genetic code. If we look at the organizationâ€™s history, we will see that the OSCE was founded for establishing political dialogue between East and West. From this point of view, we consider that the settlement of any problem and discord between the sides must pass through the dialogue. As you underlined, the OSCE Office in Baku had organized several roundtable with the participation of political parties before the parliamentary elections. We intend to put forward such initiatives in the future.

- The OSCE Office in Baku and Mayorâ€™s Office of Baku held talks on ensuring freedom of assembly, allocation of mass action places. As a new head of the Office, do you intend to continue these initiatives?

- We donâ€™t negotiate this issue now, but taking the significance of this issue into account, the OSCE Office in Baku will try to keep the issue of generally accepted mass action places on agenda.

- This year the OSCE Office in Baku organized training on the prevention of domestic violence, protection of fundamental rights, as well as open police day and other events. As the head of the Office, how do you consider efficiency coefficient of such events?

- We consider that the events, which you have noted, are useful. It would be naivety to expect for significant results after every event and project. We know that the democratization is a long process, and it demands time, will and foremost, the continuous effort. From this point of view, we will also continue our efforts and work to contribute to the reforms in Azerbaijan.