Baku, Azerbaijan, June 11
By Jamilya Aliyeva - Trend:
Europe should stop lecturing Azerbaijan, Member of the European Parliament and former Foreign Minister of Romania Adrian Severin told Trend June 11.
"European Union should understand that Azerbaijan can live very well without it, that it was life in Azerbaijan before the cooperation with European Union and there will be life without European Union," he said.
However, flourishing of EU and Azerbaijan cooperation would be good for both parties, they should respect each other, according to him.
"I think the organization of the European Games for the first time is a great event, it is an event speaking for European values and one of them is peace," Severin said. "These Games are speaking for peace."
"European Union should have greeted these Games wherever they are taking place, I think that a country like Azerbaijan, which is engaged in the development of its own nation, its own democracy should be even more welcomed," he said.
"I cannot but deplore the continuation of this bad habit of the west; it is about narcissism of European fake democracy, which uses this event in order to show that they are superior to the others and lecture the others. This is a bad habit and this habit should be stopped."
The European Union should develop its own internal democracy and stop lecturing others, he said.
Europe has a lot of weaknesses in their democracy, there are lots of weaknesses with their rules of law, said Severin.
They have to stop this critical attitude, finger pointing at others, while at home they are unable to clean up their own yard, he said.
"It is great that the Games are organized in Azerbaijan, it is recognition of the progress already done by Azerbaijan, this is commitment of Azerbaijan to develop democracy and rule of law," according to Severin. "It is a shame that some take this opportunity to politicize such an event."
The best answer is to ignore this criticism, the former minister said.
Baku 2015 is the first-ever European Games, an exciting and innovative multi-sport event for the continent that will take place on June 12-28, 2015.
There will be a total of 20 sports at Baku 2015: 16 Olympic sports and four non-Olympic sports. More than 6,000 athletes from across Europe will be representing their nations over 17 days of competition.
Baku was awarded the games by the European Olympic Committees (EOC) in December 2012.