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Ali Hasanov: Azerbaijan has made tremendous progress toward building democratic society and no one can deny it

04 November 2014 14:49 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. Head of Political and Public Affairs Department at the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration Ali Hasanov has commented on an article by Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland published in The Guardian regarding the state of human rights and judiciary in Azerbaijan, the last pardon decree of the Azerbaijani President, the establishment of a working on the issue of prisoners and other steps.

In his interview to Azerbaijan State Telegraph Agency (AzerTAc), Hasanov said Azerbaijan has made tremendous progress toward building a democratic society and no one can deny it.

“Azerbaijan isn’t inferior to any member states of the Council of Europe in terms of building a democratic society, ensuring human rights and freedoms, as well as implementing democratic reforms in judiciary. Azerbaijani legislation meeting the international standards fully ensures sustainable development of civil society, freedom of expression and information, freedom of assembly and effective protection of human rights. As you know, Azerbaijan has a three-tiered judicial system and is observing the jurisdiction of the European Court on Human Rights as a member country of the Council of Europe. Currently, it is the most perfect mechanism to ensure the protection of human rights,” he said.

The department head said that Azerbaijan is exemplary for its activity, initiative and principal position in the international organizations including the Council of Europe as well and fulfills all its duties and responsibilities.

“We regard the Council of Europe as a platform and tribune where we can develop our foreign relations, strengthen our current capacity through the effective cooperation with the member states, contribute to the strengthening of the formed system of international relations, take an active part in the European processes, defend our national interests and bring the truthes to the world community. And respectively, we expect from the EU administration and the member states an adequate attitude toward Azerbaijan. It is disappointing to note that in most cases, several leading international organizations, including the Council of Europe act as means of pressure of some forces on the member states. Artificial exaggeration of the so-called issue of “political prisoners”, attempts to dishonor Azerbaijan with unfounded and biased statements not only undermine the cooperation within the framework of the Council of Europe, but distract it from performing its mission and shatter the confidence toward the organization. I think that some of the statements in the article by Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland are the results of certain anti-Azerbaijani forces’ influence and nothing more than ungrounded subjective judgments,” Hasanov stated.

Hasanov noted that neither Azerbaijani laws nor international legislation gives special privilege regarding any employee that has committed a particular crime.

“Just as in any democratic country, Azerbaijani courts too rely on the rule of law, not the claims, wishes and desires of different political parties and individuals. So therefore, statements, interviews as well as various methods of influence and pressure aimed at particular interests can in the first place be considered disrespect to the rule of law. On the other hand, launching an attack on a country that has nothing to do with this process in order to prevent another country’s initiative to leave the European Court for Human Rights and attempting to suggest so-called reasons for that can not be explained with any logic. We recommend Mr. Jagland looks for the reason of the UK wanting to leave the European Court for Human Rights either at the European Court or in the UK. It seems baseless attacks made on different members under the pressure of external forces, and double standards exceeding all boundaries, tendentious claims have cut back on the trust of a country like the UK, which has democratic traditions, in the European Court, pushing it to reveal its intention of taking such a radical step. Mr Jagland is right in saying that the rights, freedom of expression and the judicial system in Europe are fading away. Azerbaijan is indeed tolerant enough in terms of the protection of national, human, and religious rights in comparison with many European countries and can be a model in this regard. I think that trying to blame young democrats instead of seriously analyzing the causes of the current situation in Europe is very easy and make this the situation even more complicated. We invite Mr Jagland to deeply contemplate this issue,” he added.