Azerbaijan did not have any interest or desire to participate in the "Summit of Democracy"

Baku/14.12.21/Turan: On December 9-10,  The "Democracy Summit" was held  at the initiative of US President Joe Biden. Azerbaijan, Turkey and Hungary were not included in the list of 110 countries invited to the summit.

A few days before the Democracy Summit, an online meeting was held between US and Russian Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin. The meeting took place in a tense atmosphere, as expected. The main topic of the meeting, against the background of news about the resumption of hostilities between Ukraine and Russia, was Ukraine. What is the most memorable for the Democracy Summit? What are the results of the meeting between Biden and Putin?

A journalist from the United States Alekber Raufoglu answered these and other questions in the "Difficult Question" program.

According to him, the reason that Azerbaijan, Turkey and Hungary were not included in the list of 110 countries invited to the summit is the very name of this event. After all, it is not called the Summit for Democracy, but the Summit of Democracy. The criterion for participation in the summit was the presence of institutions capable of applying democracy, the willingness to take the appropriate obligations to themselves and do their homework.

“Unfortunately, Azerbaijan did not meet these criteria. Moreover, Azerbaijan had neither interest nor desire to take part in this event,” Raufoglu said.

Touching upon the question, why were there non-democratic countries among the invitees? - the journalist said, - “For the reason that there is still an opportunity, there is hope “for democracy” , that is, for the transition to democracy ”.

According to Raufoglu, the summit had three main directions:

- Strengthening free space;

- Fight against authoritarianism;

- Fight against corruption.

He also drew attention to the fact that during the summit the post of the US Department of State Anti-Corruption Coordinator was established. In addition, important measures have been taken to combat human rights violations.

“Over the past week, the United States has been taking sanctions against individuals in different countries who have violated human rights in various spheres. The number of sanctions adopted within 5 days has exceeded the number of sanctions adopted in the past during the year,” Raufoglu said.

Referring to the virtual meeting between the presidents of the United States and Russia, Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, the journalist noted that the only benefit of the Russian president from negotiations with his American counterpart was that the name of the leader of the Russian opposition, Alexei Navalny, was not mentioned. –0—