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Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan: European Parliamentâ€™s resolution has frivolous and slanderous character

25 May 2012 14:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. â€œThe European Parliamentâ€™s resolution on Azerbaijan adopted on May 24 has frivolous and slanderous character. Most of the issues reflected in this document were distortedâ€, head of the department of the Presidential Administration for work with law-enforcement agencies Fuad Alasgarov said.

He said the date of adoption also showed that the resolution was ordered by some forces. â€œIntensive anti-Azerbaijan campaign in European mass media, manner of Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and our neighbors, as well as synchronized activity of Azerbaijanâ€™s radical opposition and some NGOâ€™s toward this confirm it. Quotation of â€œAzerbaijani human rights defendersâ€™ 10-month campaign started before the Eurovision song contestâ€ also confirms itâ€.

Fuad Alasgarov said the resolution was adopted during 30-minute hasty hearing and it contains many inaccurate and unverified clauses. â€œI consider that the European Parliament takes wrong position. Azerbaijan is located on southern border of Europe. It is alternative energy source for Europe and one of the main components of Europeâ€™s economic independence and security. Azerbaijan follows the course of integration into Europe and fulfills its commitments. Unfortunately contributing to parochial political interests they show biased attitude to Azerbaijan. For example, member of the European Peopleâ€™s Party from Germany Bernd Posselt have same position with the German mass media. Amnesty Internationalâ€™s Deputy Director for Europe and Central Asia John Dalhuisen, whose attitude toward Azerbaijan was formed under the influence of his Armenian childhood friends, also has too subjective ideasâ€.

The resolution claims that May 15 rally was broken up by police and calls for peaceful protest actions. â€œThis clause doesnâ€™t reflect the realities. First, there was no rally on May 15. Only 20-30 people picketed on May 14 and those meetings were unauthorized. Radical opposition represented in so-called Public Chamber refused to hold rally in the places offered by Baku Cityâ€™s Executive Power. Though the representatives of radical opposition held several authorized meetings earlier. But they saw that those meetings didnâ€™t have resonance abroad and chose the tactic of pickets to draw attention of the foreign journalists arrived in our country to cover Eurovision song contest. So they joined the anti-Azerbaijan campaign started by the pro-Armenian forcesâ€.

Fuad Alasgarov said that holding of rallies on the eve of or during the international events are restricted temporarily and even prohibited for security: â€œSecurity forces cracked down the actions of anti-globalists during NATOâ€™s Chicago Summit, some of the participants of the actions were injured. 60 people were detained. The relevant security measures are taken during the song contest in Azerbaijan. As I noted in my previous interviews, holding of unauthorized rallies in such moment creates tension. Regarding the use of force, police only performed its duties for ensuring public order. No act of violence was committed against the rally participants and no one of them was arrested. Police stayed calm even in those cases when it was offended by some forces.â€

PA official said that the clause in the resolution on blackmail of correspondent of Radio Libertyâ€™s Baku Bureau Khadija Ismayilova is based on fictitious conclusions which donâ€™t have a legal base: â€œSelf-respecting reliable international organization must have a reasonable position from the legal standpoint. The investigation of Khadija Ismayilovaâ€™s case has not been finished yet. In this case, any unproved fictitious charges are nothing but preconceived positionâ€.

Fuad Alasgarov also commented on resolutionâ€™s call to issue a visa for Christoph Straesser to visit Azerbaijan for implementing its mandate: â€œHowever, Azerbaijan invited the rapporteur to Azerbaijan late March within its mandate for discussing the criteria for determining â€œpolitical prisonerâ€ concept. But he refused to visit, and stayed indifferent to his mandate. PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights adopted a decision on bipartition of rapporteurâ€™s report on March 21. The first part will concern the determination of universal criteria that will be implemented for the European countries and the second part of the report will be prepared later. Evidently, the European Parliament is unaware of these issues, including PACE Committeeâ€™s decision adopted three days ago. However, both organizations are situated in neighboring buildings in Strasbourg.

PA official said that the resolution calls the government of Azerbaijan to fulfill all decisions of the European Court: â€œSuch abstract call can be made to all member countries of the Council of Europe. Azerbaijan takes all necessary measures on fulfillment of these decisions. Indeed the number of unfulfilled decisions in many countries of Europe is much more than Azerbaijan. The resolution read that the journalists were arrested on political charges. On the one hand, the resolution condemned the threats of radical Muslim organizations and the other hand, demanded to release two persons, who spread these threats. These clauses are completely contradictory and absurd.â€

Speaking about the impact of this resolution on the relations with the European Parliament Fuad Alasgarov noted that Europe is in the economic crisis, even faces threat of division: â€œThis is a foolish decision based on envy and emotions. It can lead the EU Neighborhood and Eastern Partnership policy to crisis. Such resolutions could bring the issue of expedience of cooperation with this organization to agenda and affect the adoption of decision on associative membershipâ€.

PA official considers that people, who voted for the resolution, have no strategic sense: â€œIt will affect the ascendancy of the European Parliament. The European Parliament, which â€œprotectsâ€ democratic values, must think about its ascendancy, carry out investigation on the basis of objective sources, but not thoughts of some quasi human right activists and non-objective reports. I would say that no one and no international organization could affect the policy of the President of Azerbaijan pursued for the welfare of the people.â€