What did NGO representatives and the US Assistant Secretary of State discuss?

Baku/09.06.21/Turan: What did representatives of civil society Rasul Jafarov, Gunel Safarova and Anar Mammadli discuss with a delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker? The head of the public association "A Citizen" Gunel Safarova told the “Difficult question” program of the Turan agency.

According to her, this meeting attracted the attention of the media, because since 2012 the activities of NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) in Azerbaijan have been restricted by the authorities. Two years later, these restrictions became legislative - in 2014, a law was passed that severely restricts the activities of NGOs. After that, litigations began related to these organizations to this day; their activities, as well as the activities of civil society in general, continue to be limited. Moreover, there are more and more problems. Moreover, at that time, NGOs, in addition to everything, lost financial, but also political support from the West.

Safarova stressed that the existing legislation impedes the implementation of social projects. She also noted that it is not realistic to change radically the laws regulating the activities of NGOs, but it is worth trying to change at least those rules that impede their activities.

In her opinion, this meeting was organized to find out the opinion of representatives of NGOs and civil society on the situation in the country, as well as the prospects for joint residence of Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the post-war period. In addition, the US Assistant Secretary of State was interested what projects can be implemented in Azerbaijan, in the socio-political situation in the country, as well as in what NGOs are able to do for its development.

Safarova expressed hope that, unlike the previous US administration, President Joe Biden's team prioritizes not only security and stability issues, but also fundamental values ​​such as human rights, human rights and freedom of speech.

“Therefore, we came up with a proposal for cooperation in the release of political prisoners,” she said. Referring to the Terter case, during which soldiers were tortured and killed, Safarova said that this topic was not touched upon during the meeting.

“The Terter affair is our internal affair,” she said.-0-