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Baku, Azerbaijan, April 28
Trend:
The start of another anti-Azerbaijan campaign in PACE is neither surprising nor coincidental, Azerbaijani President’s Assistant for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov wrote in a Facebook post April 28.
"Circles in the West, consistently and purposefully operating against Azerbaijan, and organizations and media they control are more active on the eve of an important event in our country and make every effort to smear both Azerbaijan and that event. Everyone knows that since early 2018 a number of international events have taken place in Azerbaijan along with other significant events in the life of the country. The April 11 presidential election in Azerbaijan was evaluated by majority of experts as a referendum of trust in President Ilham Aliyev," Hasanov wrote.
Hasanov said the society positively assessed the steps taken after the presidential election to form a new government.
"We celebrate the 100th anniversary of establishment of the first Muslim democracy. In addition, a serious campaign was organized on international platforms to give a political and legal assessment to the century-old history of the genocide committed against Azerbaijanis," he said.
"Work has been completed on some components of the Southern Gas Corridor project, being realized under the leadership of Azerbaijan, and after a while we will mark the launch of the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) project. Very important decisions have been taken to realize transport projects of significant geo-strategic importance, and work in this direction is successfully underway."
"On these days, world sports fans watching Formula 1 do not hide their surprise at Baku's magnificence. These events occurred in the four months of 2018. Ahead, there are several more grandiose events that will draw attention of the world to our country," he said.
"And what is happening in Armenia?! Unrests and dissatisfaction of people continue in that country following the election, which coincided with the presidential election in Azerbaijan," he said.
According to him, the Armenian society cannot find peace although the people toppled Serzh Sargsyan, who for years isolated Armenia from international community, political and economic life of the region, appropriating all material resources and exploiting the people.
"We understand today's disappointment of those who just yesterday congratulated Sargsyan on "election" as the prime minister and wished welfare to Armenia. Apparently this picture - a strong and successfully developing Azerbaijan on the one hand, and Armenian reality, floundering in the maelstrom of political cataclysms with no hope to future on the other hand - seriously worries the external anti-Azerbaijan circles. I am sure that they lost sleep because of ineffective "slander campaign", which cost considerable finance. Therefore, another campaign launched verily at this moment at the PACE, based on subjective considerations put forward by some Western NGOs and media that have repeatedly proved anti-Azerbaijan activity, is not surprising at all and is not coincidental," Hasanov said.
The official said that Azerbaijan understands what the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) - and the forces behind it - seeks by publishing "investigations" in a number of transnational Western publications, where it purchased special pages.
"Those forces do not accept the independent policy of a small state, which is glaring on the large political map, whose voice is heard on the global scale. Those circles are not satisfied with the fact that a former Soviet periphery - Azerbaijan - has become owner of its national wealth, becoming stronger and turning into an international actor. It is already impossible to organize clashes, create confusion, pin down Azerbaijan to fact and force it to make concessions through the internal "fifth column". Baku does not join any Western campaigns and sanctions related to neighboring states, does not allow to use its territory as a springboard against certain countries," Hasanov stressed.
Hasanov further reminded that Baku was standoffish to the initiatives to use Azerbaijan for transferring "waves of democracy" of the 1990s to the south and Central Asia, and today the country is not included in such projects as the Great Middle East, the new Shiite Crescent, it does not participate in any of agreements directed against friendly peoples of Russia, Iran and Turkey.
"Though tangible pressure was imposed on the country in the past due to this, and this pressure and incitement continues today," he said. "Azerbaijan has determined and pursues its foreign policy independently, in accordance with its national interests, and position of the people is expressed at international organizations. In a nutshell, a country whose population does not reach 10 million people resists pressure of the hegemonic forces, pursues its own political course, and has gained great authority and respect on international arena as a reliable partner, as an ally that can be relied upon."
According to him, in the foreign policy of each state, a direction stipulating the use of power of the diaspora and interest groups abroad for the sake of national interests occupies an important place.
"Lobbyism is an activity that Western politics has popularized in the world. This activity is regulated by legislation in many Western countries, for example, in the United States. The US annually spends more than $200 billion abroad for these purposes. The EU, including via the Eastern Partnership Program, spends hundreds of millions of euros on projects related to politics, education, and NGOs. Azerbaijan is also moving on this way, using the strength of companies and structures that have economic interests in our country, as well as capabilities of states involved in the energy and transport corridors, tries to work with individual politicians, media structures, NGOs, parliamentary factions," Hasanov explained.
Hasanov stressed that important projects are being implemented through the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Azerbaijan International Development Agency (AIDA), as well as international events are held for the country's image.
"Should not Azerbaijan work with international organizations? Or should the guests visiting country stay hungry? What is wrong with presenting souvenirs that are symbols of our country? Carnegie Corporation, which plays a special role in financing the pro-Armenian "People in Need", and also such organizations as Freedom House, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch consist of representatives of the Armenian Diaspora.
"John Kerry, who when serving as the US secretary of state turned his office into a headquarters for anti-Azerbaijan campaigns, now works as an expert in the Carnegie Corporation," Hasanov said. "Why is green light given to the lobbying activity of Armenians in the West? Why do they openly stimulate anti-Azerbaijan activities and do not recognize the right of the Azerbaijani state to defend itself?"
"The active observers of political behind-the-scenes news surely remember: at a time when Azerbaijan just gained independence, various Western structures, businessmen, politicians tried to establish cooperation with our country and put forward their proposals for its promotion on international arena. In most cases, those who voiced such proposals intended to get a piece of Azerbaijan's national wealth. Did we have to give Azerbaijan's national wealth to those robbers, who had such a stereotypical thinking that they came for a trophy in the "conquered" former Soviet province, and work with them? What is wrong if Azerbaijan uses active political and economic groups, clear-headed influential personalities to protect its interests on international arena?"
"What kind of work has the lobby done for Azerbaijan? Just citing the documents adopted so far by various European structures on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would have taken up enough space and time. The Azerbaijani diplomacy and the diaspora have done a great work for this achievement. How quickly did we forget the shock experienced by the Armenian foreign policy authority and the Armenian delegation at the PACE when such documents were first adopted," he said.
Hasanov said that those who survived the shock of the well-known Strasser's project back in 2013 after the "corruption report" at PACE, are getting ready for a revenge on the issue of "political prisoners".
Hasanov assessed this as another insidious game against Azerbaijan, its national interests.
"And what do you think? The country should not protect its interests? We can understand goals of external anti-Azerbaijan circles. However, it is impossible to understand Azerbaijani immigrants, who support these campaigns and participate in this discrediting policy. It is impossible to explain today's counter-position of those who accused Azerbaijan of inability to form an economic lobby, groups of political support, and always cited Armenian lobby's activities as an example."
"We want opponents inside the country ask: "Why does Azerbaijan have a few lobby in European structures, parliaments of Western countries, international structures?", "Why this or that structure, NGO, think tank that can influence the public opinion in a Western country, has not been turned into the Azerbaijani lobby?". These questions have a short answer."
"First of all, creation of a lobby requires huge time and hard work. And, without any doubt, recent appointments made by the Azerbaijani president will accelerate this work. Secondly, sometimes those who could support creation of such a lobby embarked on the path of betrayal. The diplomat who held such a high position as the ambassador to the Council of Europe, today "proudly" states that he has sent to PACE and other European structures a covert denunciation-complaint about the lobbying activities of Azerbaijan. This is the key reason - those who were supposed to participate in creation of a lobby did not refrain even from betrayal to hinder this work," Hasanov said.