Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 11
Trend:
The European Parliament has already lost the sense of reality and has become a toy in the hands of various circles, Azerbaijani president's aide for public and political affairs, Ali Hasanov told AzerTAg on Sept. 11.
He was commenting on a resolution earlier adopted by the European Parliament with regard to Azerbaijan.
Hasanov said Azerbaijan is a country pursuing an independent policy, a democratic country, which develops dynamically and enjoys a high international authority.
"Civil society is developing in Azerbaijan, the freedom of expression, speech and information of everybody has been ensured, all the necessary conditions have been created for the work of political parties, non-governmental organizations and the media," said Hasanov.
He added that today Azerbaijan has dozens of political parties, and hundreds of NGOs and media structures operate freely without any obstacles, and the freedom of the Internet is fully secured.
"Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's strong stance implies that at current stage, an independent policy line, a liberal economic system and a strong civil society are the main means to ensure any country's dynamic development," Hasanov further said.
"For this reason exactly, the Azerbaijani state is pursuing a consistent policy to strengthen democratic principles, to further develop the civil society institutions, and to promote their work," said Hasanov.
The presidential aide noted that Azerbaijan's independent policy and important achievements irritate some Islamophobic, pro-Armenian circles in the West, annoying them even more with the lapse of time.
The serial attacks of the European Parliament on Azerbaijan, adopted biased resolutions are also the result of incitement and constant pressure of these circles on this structure, according to the top official.
"Activation of certain externally controlled fractions of the European Parliament on the eve of important events in Azerbaijan and adoption of resolutions reflecting absurd claims against our country with direct participation of Islamophobic leadership of this structure has already become a tradition," said Hasanov.
"Another resolution adopted on the eve of the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan is nothing but a new attempt to undermine the country's international influence by the leadership and the known group of this structure," he added.
"I would like to remind them that Azerbaijan is not a member of the European Union, has no responsibility to this structure, and, therefore, the resolution adopted by the European Parliament is nothing but a piece of paper, like the previous biased documents," said the top official.
Touching upon the claims reflected in the resolution, Hasanov noted that the subjective judgments based on the information from dubious sources can not be taken seriously in any case.
"Just like in any democratic country, the main requirement of the government in Azerbaijan is that no cases of abuse of current freedoms take place in the activity of civil society institutions and that the transparency and the rule of law in this area are ensured," said Hasanov.
"Neither the laws of Azerbaijan, nor the international law provide any special privileges on representatives of any profession, who committed a concrete criminal offense," he further said.
Hasanov added that courts in Azerbaijan, while making decisions, take the requirements of law as a basis, but not the statements and wishes of certain political circles or individuals.
"In Azerbaijan, all the rights are ensured, as well as all the needs - not prohibited by law - of those who have been prosecuted for specific criminal acts, are catered," said Hasanov.
He added that Azerbaijan is in the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights, and the decisions of local courts can be appealed at that instance.
"And therefore the European Parliament, politicizing in a biased form the cases of some individuals, whose specific criminal acts were proved in open court on the basis of facts and witness evidences, is demonstrating by this a disrespect for the rule of law," he said.
Azerbaijani president's aide brought to attention that the policy pursued by the West has led to grave consequences for the entire world.
He said it would be better if the European Parliament, which is voicing claims on violation of human rights in Azerbaijan, thinks about the fate of millions of citizens of the countries that turned into an arena of civil confrontation as a result of direct interference and military aggression.
"It would be more logical and fair to impose sanctions on some Western leaders, who have taken part in the decline of economies of dozens of countries, the looting of their national wealth, and on those responsible for that hundreds of thousands of people had to leave their countries," he added.
Hasanov said the European Parliament should prevent on the landscape of the European Union such phenomena as religious and racial discrimination, fascism and xenophobia, and investigate violations of the rights of media representatives, NGO activists and demand punishment for those guilty.
He also said the European Parliament, which is demanding an investigation into corruption cases in Azerbaijan, has to give an assessment to cases of appropriation of billions of euros in the EU countries though various ways, and manage to hold legally liable those officials, who give instructions to silence the citizens protesting against this arbitrariness and to violently repress protests.
"It would be better for the European Parliament to investigate to what purposes the millions of euros - the European taxpayers' money allocated by the EU to develop civil society in Azerbaijan, were spent in fact, and to realize that this money was thrown away," said Azerbaijani president's aide.
"The recent trials confirmed that by grossly violating Azerbaijan's law, heads of some NGOs were spending the grants they received from abroad to obtain real estate in Europe, to have luxury lifestyle and replenish their personal bank accounts," said the president's aide.
Touching upon the European Parliament's call for international organizations to refuse sending an observation mission to Azerbaijan's parliamentary election, Hasanov said this clearly shows that this structure has lost the sense of reality and turned into a toy in the hands of various circles.
"Recently, speaking before the European Parliament members in Strasburg, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker ironically said in connection with one of the incidents that different people can enter the European Parliament," said Hasanov.
"By developing his idea, I would like to say that the European Parliament can also adopt any absurd and laughable resolution," he said. "Such cases have been repeatedly observed in this structure's practice and the latest resolution on Azerbaijan proves that once again."
Regarding the prospects for relations between Azerbaijan and the EU, the top official said that Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed readiness to continue the partnership relations, equal cooperation and remains committed to its position today as well.
However, Azerbaijan will never accept anyone's claims for dominance and prevent the attempts to practice "senior-junior" relations, he said, adding that it is time to understand this truth and abandon the attempts aimed at destroying the relations.