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AZERBAIJAN DEFENDS ITS COMMITMENT TO HUMAN RIGHTS
Sacramento Bee, CA
June 21 2013
By Azerbaijan Monitor
Published: Friday, Jun. 21, 2013 - 9:05 am
BRUSSELS, June 21, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ --
Azerbaijan continued its drive to greater European integration, as
President Ilham Aliyev met Friday with European Council President
Herman van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso for talks focusing on energy security and the Armenian-occupied
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
While Aliyev presented Azerbaijan's hopes for the future and today, the
country also pushed back on recent allegations of human rights abuses.
Adressing a letter sent by Human Rights Watch to Barroso on the eve of
Aliyev's trip, Elkhan Suleymanov, Chairman of Azerbaijani Delegation
to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, accused the rights group of
neglecting its core mission and distorting Azerbaijan's record.
Human Rights Watch "does not take into account that Azerbaijan is a
full member of many influential international organizations, that
it has already established mutually beneficial cooperation on the
bilateral and multilateral basis with the states of the world and
finally, that Azerbaijan is an independent republic which develops
cooperation and partnership relations with the European Union,"
Suleymanov said.
The letter accused Azerbaijan of unspecified violations and encouraged
Barroso to "press" Azerbaijan for policy changes.
Suleymanov pointed out that the letter offered no factual bases for
its assertions. Instead, Azerbaijan "has announced the establishment
of civil, democratic, legal state and civil society, as well as
integration into Europe as priority directions of its internal and
foreign policy."
Azerbaijan, he said, has dedicated itself to matching Europe's human
rights standards. "Azerbaijan is committed to the establishment
of universal values, such as democracy, human rights and freedoms,
cooperates with specialized institutions of Europe in this direction,
constantly improves its legislation, and carries out relevant reforms."
Suleymanov also defended Azerbaijan's laws ensuring free speech and
assembly on the one hand, and protecting public safety and order on
the other, as "an accepted principle in all European countries."
He pointed out that Human Rights Watch has been virtually silent on
Armenia's ethnic cleansing, and subsequent human rights abuses of
the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied
provinces, suggesting that the organisation was at best applying a
double standard where Azerbaijan is concerned.
Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding provinces were seized during
Azerbaijan's war with Armenia, followed by the forced expulsion of
over one million ethnic Azerbaijanis from the provinces at the war's
conclusion. Armenia refuses to end the occupation, described by the
United Nations and others as a violation of international law.
SOURCE Azerbaijan Monitor
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/21/5514563/azerbaijan-defends-its-commitment.html
Sacramento Bee, CA
June 21 2013
By Azerbaijan Monitor
Published: Friday, Jun. 21, 2013 - 9:05 am
BRUSSELS, June 21, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ --
Azerbaijan continued its drive to greater European integration, as
President Ilham Aliyev met Friday with European Council President
Herman van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel
Barroso for talks focusing on energy security and the Armenian-occupied
territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
While Aliyev presented Azerbaijan's hopes for the future and today, the
country also pushed back on recent allegations of human rights abuses.
Adressing a letter sent by Human Rights Watch to Barroso on the eve of
Aliyev's trip, Elkhan Suleymanov, Chairman of Azerbaijani Delegation
to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly, accused the rights group of
neglecting its core mission and distorting Azerbaijan's record.
Human Rights Watch "does not take into account that Azerbaijan is a
full member of many influential international organizations, that
it has already established mutually beneficial cooperation on the
bilateral and multilateral basis with the states of the world and
finally, that Azerbaijan is an independent republic which develops
cooperation and partnership relations with the European Union,"
Suleymanov said.
The letter accused Azerbaijan of unspecified violations and encouraged
Barroso to "press" Azerbaijan for policy changes.
Suleymanov pointed out that the letter offered no factual bases for
its assertions. Instead, Azerbaijan "has announced the establishment
of civil, democratic, legal state and civil society, as well as
integration into Europe as priority directions of its internal and
foreign policy."
Azerbaijan, he said, has dedicated itself to matching Europe's human
rights standards. "Azerbaijan is committed to the establishment
of universal values, such as democracy, human rights and freedoms,
cooperates with specialized institutions of Europe in this direction,
constantly improves its legislation, and carries out relevant reforms."
Suleymanov also defended Azerbaijan's laws ensuring free speech and
assembly on the one hand, and protecting public safety and order on
the other, as "an accepted principle in all European countries."
He pointed out that Human Rights Watch has been virtually silent on
Armenia's ethnic cleansing, and subsequent human rights abuses of
the Azerbaijanis of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding occupied
provinces, suggesting that the organisation was at best applying a
double standard where Azerbaijan is concerned.
Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding provinces were seized during
Azerbaijan's war with Armenia, followed by the forced expulsion of
over one million ethnic Azerbaijanis from the provinces at the war's
conclusion. Armenia refuses to end the occupation, described by the
United Nations and others as a violation of international law.
SOURCE Azerbaijan Monitor
http://www.sacbee.com/2013/06/21/5514563/azerbaijan-defends-its-commitment.html