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Ambassador Elin Suleymanov: "The future of Azerbaijan will be determined by the citizens of the country, not in foreign capitals"

17 July 2013 08:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku – APA. The U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, more known as the Helsinki Commission that monitors implementation of the Helsinki Final Act and other OSCE documents organized a briefing on Azerbaijan on July 16, APA reports. The discussions were moderated by the representatives of the Commission Secretariat Shelly Han and Paul Carter. Azerbaijan was represented by the Ambassador to the US Elin Suleymanov and Chairman of the International and Inter-Parliamentary Relations Committee of Azerbaijani Parliament Samad Seyidov, who is paying a visit to the US with the view of holding bilateral meetings in Washington as the head of Azerbaijan-US Friendship Group.

Ambassador Elin Suleymanov presented a broad written report at the briefing and gave detailed information about the activities carried out in Azerbaijan under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev in the sphere of democratic state-building, promotion of free society and protection of human rights. Ambassador said all necessary measures will be taken by the Azerbaijani authorities for holding free and democratic presidential elections in October, noted that the future of Azerbaijan will be determined by the citizens of the country, not in foreign capitals or countries. According to Elin Suleymanov, in accordance with the requirements of Azerbaijan’s Constitution and national legislation, every candidate will be able to be registered and participate in the elections.

He refuted the groundless critical remarks on our country regarding the human rights and grounded his position with concrete facts.

Touching on aggressive policy of Armenia against Azerbaijan, the diplomat said that the Azerbaijani people regard this case as the most serious violation of human rights and it is non-serious to talk about human rights in Azerbaijan without paying attention to these violations. Suleymanov drew the attention of the U.S. public to the insults and threats faced by Moldovan Parliamentary Advocate Aurelia Grigoriu in Yerevan as she mentioned the reality of the Armenian aggression and characterized this case as an acute violation of the Helsinki principles. The Ambassador also dropped remarks on the Helsinki Commission for failing to take measures against Armenia over serious violations during the recent presidential elections.

Recalling Azerbaijan’s admission to the European Convention on Human Rights, Samad Seyidov noted that the Azerbaijani citizens have the right to directly appeal to this court and the government executes all decisions passed by the court. He said that the number of complaints submitted to the court from our country is lower than from many European countries. He noted that the number of inmates in prisons is also fewer.

The US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Melia said that the U.S. considers Azerbaijan its friend and bilateral relations have developed in various fields. She said continuous dialogues are being conducted with the Azerbaijani government on democracy and human rights and expressed their hope that presidential elections will be held in a free and democratic manner in October this year.

Following the presentations, the speakers invited to the event, including Elin Suleymanov and Samad Seyidov answered the questions of the participants.

The embassy noted that unlike the reports spread by some media outlets, Helsinki Commission’s event on Azerbaijan was not a hearing, but a briefing. According to the existing rules, briefings are more informal and such kind of meetings is held not by Chairman or Co-Chairman of the Commission, but by the employees of the Secretariat. Therefore, none of the members of the Commission attended the briefing on Azerbaijan.