"Don"t turn a blind eye on human rights," Jamil Hasanli urges US to toughen Azeri stance

Azerbaijan’s top democratic opposition figure said Friday in the US capital that it is time for western democracies to respect their own proclaimed principles and “stay away from getting too close to the corrupted authoritarian dictatorial regimes,” TURAN’s Washington correspondent reports.

“There are no borders for democracy, human rights… People in our counties might be too intimidated, too afraid to express their thought openly right now, but they see everything and they do have thoughts,” Jamil Hasanli, the recent single opposition candidate from the Azerbaijan’s united democratic opposition at Oct 9 presidential elections, said during November 22 public discussion forum in Washington, DC titled “The Quest for Democracy in Azerbaijan”.  The event was organized by the Azerbaijani-Americans for Democracy, nonpartisan organization that advocates for democracy in Azerbaijan.

Hasanli, a history professor, who officially got less than 6 percent of the vote compared to Ilham Aliyev’s 85 percent in an internationally criticized Oct 9 vote, discussed the post-election situation in Azerbaijan, during his Washington visit.

“There was no election, but the appropriation of the power on October 9… This is a crime against the Azeri people,” he said, adding, falsification is “the essence of the Azerbaijani government.”

Even before the election, Aliyev personally targeted opposition by calling its leaders “enemies,” which, according to Hasanli, was “enough for the government machine to attack their opponents.”

As the election is over now, the oppositional voters, mostly western-educated youth activists, are being targeted. The country, he said, is “rapidly heading from authoritarianism to totalitarian role.”  

Unemployment, arbitrariness, lawlessness is currently hitting all spears of life in Azerbaijan.

“Approximately half of the work force has fled the country… If half of the voters are not in the country, how can you have 72% of the activity in the election?” he asked. 

Thanks to the National Council’s active campaign, 20% of the voters joined the election and “only 18 percent of them voted for Aliyev,” Hasanli claimed adding that the opposition was able to achieve moral victory.

“I can assure you that the reason why OSCE stood sharply behind its assessment was also because they sensed such a strong readiness for movement within the country... National Council will work on active involvement of Azerbaijanis, rallying, and taking charge over their own fate.”

Unlike OSCE mission, some observers from the democratic world didn’t find a will in themselves to properly evaluate the election reality. Reacting to this, Hasanli asked: “How the parliamentarians that were democratically elected in their own country, could come and give such a positive assessment to the election frauds in another country?”

“In 2001 when Azerbaijan became a member to the CoE, we believed – maybe naively so—that Azerbaijan will be adjusted to the European standards. But we saw reverse process: CoE adjusted itself to Azerbaijani standards,” he said.

When asked “how can the friends in the US and Europe help the Azeri democrats?” Hasanli said, the main thing is “their willingness and decision to help.”

Maintaining a balance in approach towards the corrupted dictatorships and forces that fight for democratic values “doesn’t set a good example… [It] doesn’t look good.”

“We understand that the US and the west have such interests in Azerbaijan as energy and security… But I can’t say that the interest in democracy is being supported and defended as energy, for example.”

Turning a blind eye on democracy matters past ten years did also chance the US own policy towards Azerbaijan, he added arguing, “10 years ago it was unimaginable for the Azeri government to treat the US ambassador the way it does now… Baku couldn’t afford to refuse entering high ranking government official of the US Administration like Thomas Melia.”

In the meantime, he said, it’s puzzling that while the west takes tougher stand on dictatorships like Russia where the Magnistsky act was applied, the Azeri government with much bigger election fraud doesn’t have same procedure implemented against it.

“Having such [Magnitsky] act against the judges in Azerbaijan, who repeatedly violated their obligations, would have strong effect,” he said.

As for the election, he added, after the final results of OSCE election report announced, it would be effective is the Congress Helsinki Commission sets hearing on that.

Looking ahead, the opposition will focus on reorganizing National Council, strengthening it, and “turning it into a center of all forces who fight for establishing democracy in Azerbaijan.”

“Our goal is to complete the existing security and energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and the west with democracy,” Hasanli emphasized.

In the meantime, he added, people “need to realize that neither Washington, London, nor Moscow will solve our problems.”

Meanwhile, the opposition see Azerbaijan’s place in the west. Speaking on upcoming Vilnius summit on Eastern Partnership, Hasanli said, it would provide Azerbaijan “a unique opportunity, to make a choice.”

“It’s time for Azeri government to respect democracy and its citizens’ rights… We should join Vilnius and EP, despite any threats from Russia. If Azerbaijan uses this opportunity properly, then its own path to the west, and Karabakh’s path towards Azerbaijan can be reopened,” he concluded.

Will the Azeri government listen to Hasanli’s messages?

Washington event was joined by the audience from an extremely wide geographic region, except… the representatives of Azerbaijani embassy who are supposed to represent all Azerbaijanis around the world, and not just a certain group…