HAYK KOTANJIAN: ALIYEV IS BECOMING A PROBLEM FOR DEMOCRACY IN AZERBAIJAN AND THE REGION
armradio.am
13.09.2012 16:12
Hayk Kotanjian, President of Political Science Association of
Armenia, Doctor of Political Science has commented on the statement
by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who was quoted by Regnum
Agency as saying that "Safarov pardon is the problem of the Armenian
President, not the region."
"President Aliyev, to find an excuse for his order to pardon
and justify - without a judicial act - the citizen of Azerbaijan
sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hungarian court, the murderer
of a sleeping fellow student within the framework of NATO Partnership
for Peace Program, has falsified the juridical fact of pardoning
Varuzhan Karapetyan in 2001.
Varuzhan Karapetyan, a citizen of another state, after 17 years of
imprisonment was released from further serving a sentence in France
(not in Armenia, as stated by Aliyev) based on the law-governed legal
act of the French court (not by the decision of the President of
Armenia, as stated by Aliyev). Thus, Karapetyan was not extradited,
but being released he left for Armenia.
But the heart of the problem is that Aliyev and his entire family by
their dictatorial behavior manipulate the Constitution and the laws
of Azerbaijan. Illicit pardon and justification of the murderer are
symptoms of anti-democratic disdain of Aliyev's regime for individual
and collective human rights, democratic principles and norms of
leading and governing state.
Keeping the society under the family's total control and
suppressing any manifestations of civil and political freedoms, by
his sultanate-style verdicts Aliyev manipulates not only the law, but
also the justice. The anti-democtratism of the family's authoritarian
is aggravated by the absolute absence of opposition in the Parliament.
Trustworthy communications with my Azerbaijani colleagues again
and again convince me of the fact that there are many educated,
notable and democtratically oriented sons and daughters among the
Azerbaijani people, who cast doubt not only over the legality of the
genocidal axe murderer Safarov's pardon, but also the Aliyev family's
anti-democratic and corrupted policy in general. This disgraceful
fact regarding the glorification of a murder of a sleeping man -
an action which is despised both in the East and the West - is a
symptomatic evidence of the political corruption inherent in the
Aliyevs' hereditary total power, as well as their cult, driven to
the absurdity in its manifestations. Taking into account the condemn
of Aliyev's anti-democratism both by Azerbaijani democratic circles
and the international community - which was actualized in terms of
the justification of the butcher at a dictator's whim, we have every
reason to believe that President Aliyev is becoming a problem both for
democracy and security of Azerbaijan, as well as the entire region."
From: A. Papazian
armradio.am
13.09.2012 16:12
Hayk Kotanjian, President of Political Science Association of
Armenia, Doctor of Political Science has commented on the statement
by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, who was quoted by Regnum
Agency as saying that "Safarov pardon is the problem of the Armenian
President, not the region."
"President Aliyev, to find an excuse for his order to pardon
and justify - without a judicial act - the citizen of Azerbaijan
sentenced to life imprisonment by the Hungarian court, the murderer
of a sleeping fellow student within the framework of NATO Partnership
for Peace Program, has falsified the juridical fact of pardoning
Varuzhan Karapetyan in 2001.
Varuzhan Karapetyan, a citizen of another state, after 17 years of
imprisonment was released from further serving a sentence in France
(not in Armenia, as stated by Aliyev) based on the law-governed legal
act of the French court (not by the decision of the President of
Armenia, as stated by Aliyev). Thus, Karapetyan was not extradited,
but being released he left for Armenia.
But the heart of the problem is that Aliyev and his entire family by
their dictatorial behavior manipulate the Constitution and the laws
of Azerbaijan. Illicit pardon and justification of the murderer are
symptoms of anti-democratic disdain of Aliyev's regime for individual
and collective human rights, democratic principles and norms of
leading and governing state.
Keeping the society under the family's total control and
suppressing any manifestations of civil and political freedoms, by
his sultanate-style verdicts Aliyev manipulates not only the law, but
also the justice. The anti-democtratism of the family's authoritarian
is aggravated by the absolute absence of opposition in the Parliament.
Trustworthy communications with my Azerbaijani colleagues again
and again convince me of the fact that there are many educated,
notable and democtratically oriented sons and daughters among the
Azerbaijani people, who cast doubt not only over the legality of the
genocidal axe murderer Safarov's pardon, but also the Aliyev family's
anti-democratic and corrupted policy in general. This disgraceful
fact regarding the glorification of a murder of a sleeping man -
an action which is despised both in the East and the West - is a
symptomatic evidence of the political corruption inherent in the
Aliyevs' hereditary total power, as well as their cult, driven to
the absurdity in its manifestations. Taking into account the condemn
of Aliyev's anti-democratism both by Azerbaijani democratic circles
and the international community - which was actualized in terms of
the justification of the butcher at a dictator's whim, we have every
reason to believe that President Aliyev is becoming a problem both for
democracy and security of Azerbaijan, as well as the entire region."
From: A. Papazian