Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 3
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
The United States has reacted to the parliamentary election in Azerbaijan the way one would expect. Being unable to find at least one negative observer report from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as well, the United States has decided to express regret due to a missing ODIHR (the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) report.
It seems like the US trusts neither PACE nor their own observers, and Australians with British lords, who recognized the election democratic and absolutely transparent, raise doubts, so there is nothing positive to say about the election without the ODIHR report.
The paradox lies in the fact that the ODIHR representatives themselves provoked the situation so that their visit to Azerbaijan would become impossible. The ODIHR grossly violated its mandate by deciding to send 400 observers to a small country and failed to justify such a "flattering" attention for Azerbaijan, and what's the use of an organization on election observation, which doesn't visit elections?
There is nothing extraordinary in the statement of the US Department of State. Actually, Washington almost always reacts to any election in countries where the notion of democracy is far from the way Uncle Sam interprets it.
This occurs when it begins to strive for a prototype of the US model. However, the revolutions and catastrophes take place. As a result, a lot of refugees flee to Europe, but this is not a problem of Washington. It is difficult to get from the Middle East to the US. So, the White House is not too worried about the consequences of introducing a pro-American model of democracy. The main thing is to start the process.
But when an independent country appears, which does not want to follow the Americans' course for some unknown reasons for them, Washington begins its systematic work to "instruct" this country. One of the tools of such instruction is the US Department of State's various estimates made by Washington concerning the events in sovereign countries.
As this time the US decided to turn a blind eye to all positive assessment, including those of its European allies, and to express regret that the OSCE/ODIHR decided not to carry out its work because of its own reasons, it seems that Baku has broken the West procedure of holding the election.
However, the world is being changed. Today, the US can no longer claim to be a superpower. It has recently had too many failures. Its model of democracy causes much doubt in the world. Perhaps, it can be good for the US, but it is not viable outside.
Elmira Tariverdiyeva, Head of Trend Agency's Russian News Service
