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Friday, October 1, 2004
Azerbaijan looks to U.S. as leader in democracy
By Mammad Baghirov
For the Deseret Morning News
The presidential campaign in the United States is being watched
very closely in Azerbaijan - an oil-rich former Soviet republic,
situated in the Caucasus region. And that is not surprising: Since the
first year of its independence, Azerbaijan has been working to keep
strong relations with the United States.
Mammad Baghirov
The first reason for this is democracy, as my country faces a
period of transition. Another reason is the geopolitical environment -
Azerbaijan borders Russia on the north and Iran on the south. A close
relationship with the United States gives the Azerbaijani leadership
an opportunity to be more independent in the dialogue with our
powerful neighbors.
As to the attitude toward the U.S. presidential candidates, the
sympathy of many people in Azerbaijan does not lie with President
Bush. And war in Iraq is the main reason for that feeling. People see
that things are getting worse there. But, ironically, we also have
military in Iraq because the Azerbaijani leadership decided to join
the U.S.-led coalition. Many people are also concerned with the
possibility of a military operation against our southern neighbor -
Iran - and what might negatively influence the regional situation.
John Kerry seems to be the more pragmatic leader. But there are
also fears in my country that if Kerry is elected, the attitude of the
United States toward Azerbaijan could change. One of the top-priority
issues for my country is the restoration of territorial integrity. At
the moment, 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands are occupied by a
neighboring state - Armenia, which pursues the goals of increasing its
territory by gathering "historical Armenian lands," which include part
of the territory of Azerbaijan and Turkey. As a result of aggression
of Armenia, thousands of people in my country were killed and wounded
and hundreds of thousands became homeless. In 1994 a cease-fire was
achieved and negotiations started. Unfortunately, they haven't brought
any results up to now, but the good news is that they are
continuing. And there is a large Armenian diaspora in the United
States, which claimed support of Kerry's candidacy. That's made people
in Azerbaijan cautious about Kerry.
It seems to me that Thursday's presidential debate increased the
chances of Bush winning the race. The American president looked much
stronger than his opponent. Kerry's stance was, as clearly stressed by
his opponent, "inconsistent."
Watching the debate, frankly speaking, I was impressed by the
atmosphere of openness and mutual respect between candidates. It's
very difficult to imagine the current president in Azerbaijan running
for another term and participating in such a debate with his
opponents. Unfortunately, there is lack of respect for opposite views
in my country, and that makes the political situation in Azerbaijan
very tense.
Azerbaijan is moving towards democracy, but this movement is
still very slow. One reason: It's difficult to build democracy with
those who ruled Azerbaijan in the Soviet period. They can say they are
democrats, but in reality their way of thinking and doing things has
nothing in common with this word. We adopted good laws, but often they
don't work because of the resistance of such "democrats." People in my
country, for instance, have the right to elect and be elected, but
there are still big doubts about the fairness of the vote.
Unfortunately, it was also the case during the last presidential
elections in the United States when some American watchdog
organizations were seriously concerned about the results. And it
strengthened the standing of Azerbaijani "democrats," who used the
example of the American elections of 2000 in debate with those who
criticized the vote in my country. Now, upon harsh criticism of
Azerbaijani elections, they could point to the American case and say
that it's not only Azerbaijan that had problems during elections, but
also the United States - the leading democratic state.
Let us hope that the upcoming elections in the United States
become really the best example of democracy at work.
E-mail: [email protected]
Friday, October 1, 2004
Azerbaijan looks to U.S. as leader in democracy
By Mammad Baghirov
For the Deseret Morning News
The presidential campaign in the United States is being watched
very closely in Azerbaijan - an oil-rich former Soviet republic,
situated in the Caucasus region. And that is not surprising: Since the
first year of its independence, Azerbaijan has been working to keep
strong relations with the United States.
Mammad Baghirov
The first reason for this is democracy, as my country faces a
period of transition. Another reason is the geopolitical environment -
Azerbaijan borders Russia on the north and Iran on the south. A close
relationship with the United States gives the Azerbaijani leadership
an opportunity to be more independent in the dialogue with our
powerful neighbors.
As to the attitude toward the U.S. presidential candidates, the
sympathy of many people in Azerbaijan does not lie with President
Bush. And war in Iraq is the main reason for that feeling. People see
that things are getting worse there. But, ironically, we also have
military in Iraq because the Azerbaijani leadership decided to join
the U.S.-led coalition. Many people are also concerned with the
possibility of a military operation against our southern neighbor -
Iran - and what might negatively influence the regional situation.
John Kerry seems to be the more pragmatic leader. But there are
also fears in my country that if Kerry is elected, the attitude of the
United States toward Azerbaijan could change. One of the top-priority
issues for my country is the restoration of territorial integrity. At
the moment, 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands are occupied by a
neighboring state - Armenia, which pursues the goals of increasing its
territory by gathering "historical Armenian lands," which include part
of the territory of Azerbaijan and Turkey. As a result of aggression
of Armenia, thousands of people in my country were killed and wounded
and hundreds of thousands became homeless. In 1994 a cease-fire was
achieved and negotiations started. Unfortunately, they haven't brought
any results up to now, but the good news is that they are
continuing. And there is a large Armenian diaspora in the United
States, which claimed support of Kerry's candidacy. That's made people
in Azerbaijan cautious about Kerry.
It seems to me that Thursday's presidential debate increased the
chances of Bush winning the race. The American president looked much
stronger than his opponent. Kerry's stance was, as clearly stressed by
his opponent, "inconsistent."
Watching the debate, frankly speaking, I was impressed by the
atmosphere of openness and mutual respect between candidates. It's
very difficult to imagine the current president in Azerbaijan running
for another term and participating in such a debate with his
opponents. Unfortunately, there is lack of respect for opposite views
in my country, and that makes the political situation in Azerbaijan
very tense.
Azerbaijan is moving towards democracy, but this movement is
still very slow. One reason: It's difficult to build democracy with
those who ruled Azerbaijan in the Soviet period. They can say they are
democrats, but in reality their way of thinking and doing things has
nothing in common with this word. We adopted good laws, but often they
don't work because of the resistance of such "democrats." People in my
country, for instance, have the right to elect and be elected, but
there are still big doubts about the fairness of the vote.
Unfortunately, it was also the case during the last presidential
elections in the United States when some American watchdog
organizations were seriously concerned about the results. And it
strengthened the standing of Azerbaijani "democrats," who used the
example of the American elections of 2000 in debate with those who
criticized the vote in my country. Now, upon harsh criticism of
Azerbaijani elections, they could point to the American case and say
that it's not only Azerbaijan that had problems during elections, but
also the United States - the leading democratic state.
Let us hope that the upcoming elections in the United States
become really the best example of democracy at work.
E-mail: [email protected]