• contact.az Contact
  • Baku
  • Partly cloudy13.20 C
  • Thursday, 14 November 2024
    • flag_AZ
    • flag_RU

Last update

(1 hour ago)
  • Home page
  • Politics
  • A classic political theatre by Azeri government MPs in Washington DC
A classic political theatre by Azeri government MPs in Washington DC
A- A A+
AZ RU
The news agency Turan
The news agency Turan

A classic political theatre by Azeri government MPs in Washington DC

 

Four Azeri MPs –Samad Seyidov, Sevinj Fataliyeva, Sahiba Gafarova, -- members of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party -- and Asim Mollazade, a Chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party, showed up in Washington DC on Thursday to speak about Azerbaijan’s domestic and geopolitical challenges in front of majority of Azeri lobbyists, at the launch that was organized by The Central Asia-Caucasus Institute of Jon Hopkins University.
 
The event, however, turned out to be nothing rather than a political show, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent reports.
 
The MPs, while presenting themselves as each other’s opponents, and staging a “discussion” with variety of opinions, ruled out any of the current outraging events in Azerbaijan, as well as the problems such as human rights, media and other freedoms that were recently on the international watchdogs’ radar…
 
Speaking about the foreign policy, both Seyidov and Mollazade mentioned that Azerbaijan is “completely independent” from all the powers and pursues its own political course, although “it’s not widely understood by the outsiders…”
 
The threat to the country comes from “North and South”, Seyidov mentioned, adding, that Azerbaijan is being pressed “like a sandwich” because of its “desire to be closer to the US”.
 
Specially, human rights, he said, “being used as an instrument of pressure against the country”.
 
“My president is under pressure, as we have seen an external influence on the country in the election year”, - he said, adding by Mollazade that the most dangerous people in Azerbaijan “are from Iran”.
 
On the domestic front, all the MPs agreed on Azerbaijan’s “building free media and strong civil society”.
 
The recent Baku rallies were met with oppression by the police “because they weren’t confirmed with the local mayor’s office; otherwise, no such cases would have happened in Azerbaijan”, Seyidov said.
 
Speaking of the Council of Europe’s recent report on political prisoners in the country, he added, the draft was “unsuccessful”, as it included among others, “the names of those who were planning to blow up the US and Israeli embassies in Baku.”
 
Mollazade, in his part, expressed solidarity with Seyidov, while presenting his opinion as “the voice of opposition”.
 
His conclusions were that “it is time for the new generation to come to politics, including giving more eats to the parliament to the youth and women”.
 
Another topic that the MPs played around was corruption. While both “admitted” the problem, they also agreed that the fight against it, is “on top priority of the government”… It was unclear, however, who are the performers of corruption in this case…
 
Alakbar Raufoglu
 
Washington, DC
03/14/2013

Leave a review

Politics

  • At the meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Aliyev did not mention the corruption of PACE Politics
    • 14 November 2024, 17:58

    At the meeting with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Aliyev did not mention the corruption of PACE

    On Thursday, President Ilham Aliyev received the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, who arrived to participate in the COP29 climate conference.

    Read more
  • Politics
    • 14 November 2024, 17:43

    ECHR Rules on Violations of the Rights of Azerbaijani Opposition Figures

    The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) today issued five rulings on applications from Azerbaijan. The case of "Afgan Mammadov v. Azerbaijan" concerned the complainant's exclusion from the Bar Association. Mammadov was expelled based on a complaint filed by a colleague, which he considered unjust. The ECHR ruled that Mammadov's rights had been violated and ordered Azerbaijan to pay him €5,000 in compensation for moral damage and €1,000 to cover legal costs.

    Read more
  • Protest in Support of Ukraine at COP29 Politics
    • 14 November 2024, 16:42

    Protest in Support of Ukraine at COP29

    During the ongoing COP29 climate conference in Baku on November 14, a group of activists staged a protest condemning Russia's aggression against Ukraine. The activists also denounced countries that supply oil and weapons to nations waging aggressive wars. The protest featured placards with slogans such as: "From fossil fuels to peace!", "End war crimes!", "Punish the aggressor!", and "Phase out fossil fuel use to achieve peace!" among others.

    Read more
  • Maria Zakharova once again exposes the "devious plans" of the West Politics
    • 14 November 2024, 16:26

    Maria Zakharova once again exposes the "devious plans" of the West

    The United States and the European Union, which tried to position themselves as mediators in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, have come up with nothing and merely copied Russia's ideas, distorting their essence in order to "hijack" the peace process for themselves. However, their true goal was to take control of the region, to insert themselves into it, and to push out Russia, as well as Iran and Türkiye,  Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated at a briefing on November 13.

    Read more

Follow us on social networks

News Line