Answer to Ilham Aliyev from Freedom House

The international human rights organization Freedom House commented on the statements of President Ilham Aliyev in its address at the meeting with representatives of the European Parliament on 20 September.

According to Turan, with reference to the website of the organization, the current President of Freedom House, Daniel Kalingaert in a statement criticized the government of Ilham Aliyev.

‘President Ilham Aliyev is the person responsible for prevailing of terrible human rights situation and for the arrest of civil society activists and the political opposition in the last 10 years,’ the Freedom House President said.

Kalingaert stressed that Freedom House will continue its work in connection with Azerbaijan.

‘Freedom House will continue its efforts in order to draw attention to cases of violations of human rights and freedoms by the Aliyev government,’ the statement said.

President Ilham Aliyev received the delegation of the EU-Azerbaijan parliamentary cooperation on September 20. At this meeting the head of state accused Freedom House of bias.

‘Freedom House has taken a pro-Armenian position and carries out regular attacks against Azerbaijan; that is why our country has no ties with the organization. For many years, the head of Freedom House was Cramer who for various reasons was expelled from the State Department and became the most active critic of Azerbaijan. I will say that Freedom House reports do not matter, and references to this organization in this document gives me a feeling of regret. This non-governmental organization and hundreds of organizations of the sort publish various reports, the President said.