Amnesty International and Fatullayev condemn each other

International human rights organization Amnesty International has announced the termination of its collaboration with a former prisoner of conscience, the head of the Public Association for Human Rights in Azerbaijan, Eynulla Fatullayev.

Amnesty International believes that Fatullayev, and in particular, his site Haqqin.az, is used by the Government of Azerbaijan to discredit European criticism of human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

Fatullayev creates a misconception of human rights violations, arguing that the phenomenon, which is common in Azerbaijan, is just as common in Germany.

In this regard, he uses criticism of Amnesty International about the situation of the rights and freedoms in this European country.

On Monday, January 21 Fatullayev presented in the European Press Club in Brussels, a report of the Public Association for Human Rights, "Decline of the West, or the crisis of European values."

Earlier, according to Amnesty International, he requested the German office of the Speaker of the organization to speak at a presentation on the topic of human rights violations in Germany. He also claimed that the project is funded by the Black Sea Fund (BST) of the German Marshall Fund. But the Marshall Fund denied the report by Fatullayev.

The BST Consultant on Azerbaijan, Mehriban Rahimli, stated that "the mention of BST with this project is not appropriate. BST has not funded or supported this study and its presentation."

In turn, Fatullayev denounced statements by Amnesty International, accusing the organization of selectivity in human rights and freedoms. "It turns out that there are selected untouchable states, which cannot be criticized. Such statements undermine the very philosophy of  European values. With what moral authority then, can these organizations dictate anything to anyone else?" he wrote on his website haqqin.az.

He also laid out information about the presentations, where apart from Fatullayev there were: the leader of the Frankfurt movement "Occupy Frankfurt" Pilts Thomas, president of the Turkish community in Germany, known public figure, Kenan Kolat, director of the Eurasian Program of the International Institute of Media, Stephen Ellis, and others.

The speakers strongly criticized the German government and urged the public not to remain indifferent to the facts of tyranny and violence against people who disagree with the policies of  Berlin.

Their concern was reinforced by showing a 38-minute film "The Decline of Europe", prepared by Internews Azerbaijan.

Note that the report "Decline of the West, or the crisis of European values," claims to be an analytical study on democracy, human rights, and politics of multiculturalism in Germany and in Europe in general, and was published on the web-site www.thedecline.info.

The international research team of the project tries to answer the following questions: Why does multiculturalism fail in such a tolerant country as Germany? Why are the issues of human rights and freedoms of speech and assembly relevant in this rich country, as well as in countries with decorative democracy? Why are there frequent cases of social unrest and protests, corruption scandals? Why does German society often support revisionist and neo-Nazi sentiments?

The international group started comparative analysis and identification of the systemic crisis of liberal values within Germany. This is due to a stable democratic image, high and significant political and economic status, as well as the specific role of this country in world and European processes. At the same time, the emerging trend of the crisis of ideas of multiculturalism, tolerance and liberal values has been experienced in Germany in recent years.

Generalizing many of the facts, the Association for Human Rights provided the following problems in this country:

1) The crisis of multiculturalism and lower ethnic and religious tolerance, the costs of immigration policy;

2) Problems in the prison, law enforcement and judicial systems in Germany, flaws in legal practice;

3) Violations of human rights, freedom of speech and assembly, excessive use of force to disperse protests.

Comments by Turan’s analytical service:

It's no secret that in Germany, as in other developed democratic countries, there are issues of corruption and human rights violations. However, the Azerbaijani model of government and public relations is too far from Europe. Therefore, the report by Fatullayev is an attempt from the Stone Age to criticize the human rights situation in bourgeois society.

An example of such a cave right in Azerbaijan is how the state treated Fatullayev, the details of which are only known to him.

The prison experiences of Fatullayev, visible to others, are just the tip of the iceberg of the inhuman humiliation of thousands of people in the face of one of the characters of the book "My dungeons."

Of course, it would be interesting to continue the project and to provide the international and Azerbaijani public with a comparative analysis of the bourgeois and cave features of the state of human rights in the areas of corruption, protection of private property, free enterprise, freedom of expression and association, political and social guarantees. This would help to better understand the mutual recriminations of Baku and Berlin on the human rights violations that were actively debated last summer. -0 –