Baku, Azerbaijan, April 29
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan regularly faced the West's double standards during all its years of independence. This is not news and Azerbaijanis have got used to it.
And once again, a reason was found - the great sports event, the European Games. The mere fact that Baku is able to host such a great event at the highest level irritates many Western politicians, including those in Washington, which did their best to kickstart a large-scale black PR campaign in the media.
The alleged disrespect for freedom of speech, bad attitude towards journalists and non-existent problems with democracy - were named as main accusations.
Apparently, the White House has forgotten its indignation over the manifestation of freedom of speech in 2010, when the country, which has always fiercely defended the freedom of speech, had to endure all the "sweetness" of publicity on itself.
At that time, a quarter-million secret diplomatic letters and telegrams from the US diplomatic missions in various countries to the US Department of State questioned the reliability of the US as a partner.
The White House at the time said that the transfer of the "stolen" letters and telegrams to some media outlets is a "reckless and dangerous act".
Since then, the US is unsuccessfully looking for the author of the revelations, journalist Julian Assange, accusing him in nearly everything, including rape.
However, apparently, when it is needed to discredit a country, the memory of the US officials shortens, along with conscience.
With a sense of bewilderment and sometimes grievance, Azerbaijanis have many years read fairy tales about the life in Azerbaijan as about any other country where everything is very bad. This is while foreigners, coming to Azerbaijan, were surprised to see not-so-poor people, magnificent buildings, excellent roads stretching across the country, crowds of people who went out shopping or to walk with children and not to stage anti-government rallies.
We won't go deeper into sorting out who is in constant need of telling tales about Azerbaijan.
The best way is to invite to Azerbaijan those, who constantly speak about the "horrors" of life in Azerbaijan from the high tribunes and in the media.
There's no need to talk to those, who have left Azerbaijan long time ago and now are calling themselves Azerbaijanis and get sick pleasure from defaming their own motherland.
No need to do that. Just talk to ordinary people on the streets of Azerbaijan. And then - write the truth.
Edited by SI
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Elmira Tariverdiyeva is Trend Agency's staff writer, follow her on Twitter @EmmaTariver