Baku, Azerbaijan, April 14
By Elchin Mehdiyev – Trend:
The report of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) on the presidential election in Azerbaijan was prepared in advance as always, and justly caused a sharp protest of the Azerbaijani society and media, expert Javid Mammadzade told Trend.
Mammadzade made the remarks commenting on the preliminary conclusions of the OSCE/ODIHR presented at a press conference on April 12. The mission, which voiced opinions not reflecting the reality observed at the election, announced that the final report will be made public within two months.
Mammadzade said that such an attitude of the OSCE/ODIHR should not be surprising.
"Because, Azerbaijan faces such a situation not for the first time. They [OSCE/ODIHR] had come to all elections in Azerbaijan with ready and biased reports. Apparently, their aim was not to assess the election, but fulfill someone's order, to cast shadow over the transparent election in Azerbaijan," he said.
He further emphasized that the OSCE/ODIHR representatives have close links with the Armenian lobby and its leadership, who have blood of the Azerbaijani people on their hands.
"Given this, what objective approach can be expected from them?" the expert asked.
Mammadzade said the task of the OSCE/ODIHR is to ensure that the election is held openly and transparently.
"However, it is obvious that the conclusions presented at the press conference on April 12 were prepared before the presidential election. Not the election process itself, but the result did not satisfy ODIHR, despite that evaluation of the election result is not part of its prerogative," according to Mammadzade.
"We can confidently say that the OSCE has not justified itself as an organization. It is enough to mention that the activity of the organization did not give any real result for settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Endless visits of the co-chairs [of the OSCE Minsk Group] to Azerbaijan and Armenia is all that the Azerbaijani people and the world community saw," he said.
Mammadzade said that inefficiency of the OSCE was proven even during the April events of 2016, the co-chairs "woke up" only on the third day of the clashes (between the troops of the Azerbaijan and Armenia).
"Now, we know what kind of "benefit" the OSCE group brought us. That is why such pre-prepared reports should not be taken seriously," he said.