Baku, Azerbaijan, June 26
Trend:
We believe that no country has a right to comment on and present certain issues in individual states in line with their own interests acting as a judge, the Azerbaijani president's aide for public and political affairs, Ali Hasanov told reporters June 26.
He was commenting on the US Department of State 'Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014'.
Hasanov further said that from this point of view, it could have been possible to not perceive the mentioned report as serious and not express attitude to the outcomes made there.
"However, since such statements are spread by the media and shape up negative opinion in the world, it is important to bring Azerbaijan's position to international community as well," he added.
Hasanov said Azerbaijan has achieved great success in building a legal and democratic state, formation and development of the civil society.
"Today, tens of political parties, thousands of NGOs and media outlets operate absolutely independently in the country," said the top official.
People's freedom of assembly, freedom of expression is by no means hampered in Azerbaijan, he said.
Strengthening of Azerbaijan's economic and financial potential, its dynamic development has also created great opportunities for ensuring comprehensive state support to the civil society institutions, according to Hasanov.
"Taking all these factors into account, we state that the remarks made in the report of the US Department of State about Azerbaijan are biased and based on false information," said Hasanov.
The biased presentation of separate cases in the report, their generalization and attribution to the whole country proves that there are shortcomings in how the report was prepared, he added.
Hasanov said that this report has touched upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on surface only.
He said that no single word was said about the fact of occupation and violence, rejection of the UN's known resolutions, as well as the documents of some international organizations by Armenia, the fact that this conflict remains unresolved for over 20 years due to Yerevan's destructive position, that more than a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs have been deprived of the elementary human rights.
"If the US really intends to comment on the democracy, human rights and freedoms situation in the world countries, it, in order to look unbiased, should first of all respect international law and demand the aggressor Armenia to fulfill the UN resolutions," said Hasanov.
He added that a single standard should be set and an assessment should be carried out on the world countries, as well as on the processes taking place in the US, with regard to evaluation of the human rights situation.
"In any case, the developments in Fergusson and Baltimore have shown that the human rights situation in the US isn't good either," said Hasanov.
Hasanov said examining the situation with regard to those guilty and responsible for the deplorable situation in the East and in the Muslim world as a result of the policies pursued by some Western circles led by the US, seems to be more relevant than the meticulous examination of democracy in Azerbaijan.
He said that unless all these issues are clarified, the US making any country a target of charges in connection with the state of democracy and human rights, is nothing but self-exposure and serves to the complete loss of the world's confidence in that country.