Fule meeting with the president, the opposition and civil society

The European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule May 2 held talks with President Ilham Aliyev. According to the website of the President, the two sides expressed their satisfaction with the cooperation between Azerbaijan and the EU, especially in the field of energy and the fight against terrorism. The participants exchanged views on the prospects of cooperation.

On Thursday Fule also met with representatives of the opposition: the EL leader Eldar Namazov, the head of Musavat Isa Gambar, the chairman of the Popular Front Party Ali Kerimli, the head of the party Umid Igbal Aghazadeh and the Chairman of the Liberal Party Avaz Temirkhan.

Namazov told Turan, the meeting lasted for 3 hours discussing the relationship between Azerbaijan and the EU, social and political processes, the upcoming presidential election, political repression by the authorities against civil society and the democratic camp as a whole.

On Friday morning, Fule talked with representatives of civil society. At the meeting were the human right defenders Rasul Jafarov, Emin Huseynov and Arzu Abdullayeva, the sociologist Anar Mammadov, the economists Gubad Ibadoglu, Vugar Bayramov and Zohrab Ismail and the environmentalist Aytekin Asgarova.

According to Jafarov, the participants focused on human rights issues. In particular, there are reactionary amendments to legislation (increased duration of administrative detention and criminal penalties for defamation on the Internet).

They marked restriction of democratic norms and increased repression, including arrests of the leader of REAL Ilgar Mamedov and the members of the movement NIDA.

Participants called on the EU not to remain indifferent to the repression and to facilitate the holding of democratic elections.

Fule assured that democracy and human rights are always in the focus of the EU. -06D-