Tweet
EUROPEAN ARMENIAN FEDERATION FOR JUSTICE & DEMOCRACY SENTS AN OPEN LETTER TO BAROSSO
Today - 16:42
As the official web-site of the Armenian National Committee informs,
Kaspar Karampetian, President of the European Armenian Federation for
Justice & Democracy, sent an open letter to the European Commission
President on the eve of the latter's visit to Azerbaijan. The letter
especially says:
"President, European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200 1049, Brussels
Brussels, 12 June 2014
Dear President Barroso,
On June 14 you will be visiting Azerbaijan, where you will be meeting
President Ilham Aliyev to hold bilateral talks, and you will be giving
a speech at the ADA University on "EU - Azerbaijan: new opportunities
and challenges".
The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy would like
to once again draw your attention on Azerbaijan, a country which the
Freedom House categorizes as a "Consolidated Authoritarian Regime",
with Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, being the first ever
Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year bestowed by the
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, who "succeeded
his father in 2003, continuing and intensifying the most repressive
aspects of his father's rule. Since then, the inflow of significant
oil revenues has fueled presidential patronage, strengthened the
state's security apparatus, and partially subdued both domestic and
foreign criticism of the regime".
It was only yesterday, that the Foreign Policy magazine run an
investigative piece titled "The Corleones of the Caspian. How
Azerbaijan's dictator woos the United States and Europe", stressing
that while the national debate is controlled at home through means
of intimidation, censorship, and legal jury-rigging, Azerbaijan's
greater mission is to whitewash its reputation abroad - where it
hasn't resorted to all-expenses-paid vacations to Baku - a form of
what European Stability Initiative witheringly describes as "caviar
diplomacy" ("Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council
of Europe") - it has spent millions of dollars in U.S. and European
lobbying, consultancy, and PR firms to whitewash its image in the
American and European media. The Aliyev regime thus, have managed to
buy friends and influence people, including past and present members
of the U.S. Congress, British Parliament, and the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, which was once known for pressuring
dictatorships, not embracing them.
It was less than a month ago, that the Bureau of PACE (Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe) decided that no more Assembly
committee meetings will be held in Azerbaijan for two years, as of
1 June 2014.
We urge you to address those issues at your meetings and stress the
anti-Armenian propaganda going on in Azerbaijan as well, which reached
its height in September 2012, when Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil Safarov
upon his arrival to Baku from Hungary, where he was convicted for
murdering an Armenian colleague during a course sponsored by NATO's
Partnership for Peace Program in Budapest; whereas Safarov had pleaded
guilty and had expressed no remorse, defending his action on the
grounds that the victim was Armenian.
Furthermore, the European Armenian Federation asks you to stress that
Azerbaijan respect the OSCE Minsk Group mediation efforts in solving
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, withdraw the snipers along the line
of contact, and accept the creation of a mechanism of investigation
of incidents, which Armenia has already agreed to.
At your speech at the ADA, we ask you to address all the above
mentioned issues to the youth and the students, that it needs more
than an oppressing regime to develop and democratize a country, and
that for a lasting peace in the region, there should be confidence
building measures between the peoples, mutual understanding, tolerance
and acceptance.
The 2% Azerbaijani gas flowing to Europe should not blind the EU
Commission, should not make it accomplice to violations of the core EU
values and rights, in the hope of signing a Strategic Modernization
Partnership and an Association Agreement with Baku and the Aliyev
regime, whose victims are the Azerbaijani people and the region.
Yours faithfully,
Kaspar Karampetian, President, European Armenian Federation for
Justice & Democracy".
http://times.am/?p=43130&l=en
Today - 16:42
As the official web-site of the Armenian National Committee informs,
Kaspar Karampetian, President of the European Armenian Federation for
Justice & Democracy, sent an open letter to the European Commission
President on the eve of the latter's visit to Azerbaijan. The letter
especially says:
"President, European Commission
Rue de la Loi 200 1049, Brussels
Brussels, 12 June 2014
Dear President Barroso,
On June 14 you will be visiting Azerbaijan, where you will be meeting
President Ilham Aliyev to hold bilateral talks, and you will be giving
a speech at the ADA University on "EU - Azerbaijan: new opportunities
and challenges".
The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy would like
to once again draw your attention on Azerbaijan, a country which the
Freedom House categorizes as a "Consolidated Authoritarian Regime",
with Ilham Aliyev, the President of Azerbaijan, being the first ever
Organized Crime and Corruption Person of the Year bestowed by the
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, who "succeeded
his father in 2003, continuing and intensifying the most repressive
aspects of his father's rule. Since then, the inflow of significant
oil revenues has fueled presidential patronage, strengthened the
state's security apparatus, and partially subdued both domestic and
foreign criticism of the regime".
It was only yesterday, that the Foreign Policy magazine run an
investigative piece titled "The Corleones of the Caspian. How
Azerbaijan's dictator woos the United States and Europe", stressing
that while the national debate is controlled at home through means
of intimidation, censorship, and legal jury-rigging, Azerbaijan's
greater mission is to whitewash its reputation abroad - where it
hasn't resorted to all-expenses-paid vacations to Baku - a form of
what European Stability Initiative witheringly describes as "caviar
diplomacy" ("Caviar Diplomacy. How Azerbaijan silenced the Council
of Europe") - it has spent millions of dollars in U.S. and European
lobbying, consultancy, and PR firms to whitewash its image in the
American and European media. The Aliyev regime thus, have managed to
buy friends and influence people, including past and present members
of the U.S. Congress, British Parliament, and the Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe, which was once known for pressuring
dictatorships, not embracing them.
It was less than a month ago, that the Bureau of PACE (Parliamentary
Assembly of the Council of Europe) decided that no more Assembly
committee meetings will be held in Azerbaijan for two years, as of
1 June 2014.
We urge you to address those issues at your meetings and stress the
anti-Armenian propaganda going on in Azerbaijan as well, which reached
its height in September 2012, when Ilham Aliyev pardoned Ramil Safarov
upon his arrival to Baku from Hungary, where he was convicted for
murdering an Armenian colleague during a course sponsored by NATO's
Partnership for Peace Program in Budapest; whereas Safarov had pleaded
guilty and had expressed no remorse, defending his action on the
grounds that the victim was Armenian.
Furthermore, the European Armenian Federation asks you to stress that
Azerbaijan respect the OSCE Minsk Group mediation efforts in solving
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, withdraw the snipers along the line
of contact, and accept the creation of a mechanism of investigation
of incidents, which Armenia has already agreed to.
At your speech at the ADA, we ask you to address all the above
mentioned issues to the youth and the students, that it needs more
than an oppressing regime to develop and democratize a country, and
that for a lasting peace in the region, there should be confidence
building measures between the peoples, mutual understanding, tolerance
and acceptance.
The 2% Azerbaijani gas flowing to Europe should not blind the EU
Commission, should not make it accomplice to violations of the core EU
values and rights, in the hope of signing a Strategic Modernization
Partnership and an Association Agreement with Baku and the Aliyev
regime, whose victims are the Azerbaijani people and the region.
Yours faithfully,
Kaspar Karampetian, President, European Armenian Federation for
Justice & Democracy".
http://times.am/?p=43130&l=en