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Ilham Aliyev denies the obvious
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The news agency Turan
The news agency Turan

Ilham Aliyev denies the obvious

The main purpose of the visit of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Brussels on Friday, June 21,  is to have  talks with European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, on the supply of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, the journalists were told by the participants of the meeting, reports DW. Until the end of June a consortium of companies developing large gas field "Shah Deniz-2", is to give the answer, which of the two competing projects for the delivery of Azerbaijani gas to Europe , the gas pipeline Nabucco West or Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), will be given preference .

 
     After the meeting, European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, told  journalists that both projects have a "strategic importance" and expressed a confidence that "in the end both pipelines can be built." Barroso added that by 2019 Europe will receive every year for at least 10 billion cubic meters of gas in the so-called Southern Gas Corridor, gas from the Caspian region, bypassing Russia. Previously, experts repeatedly expressed the view that the decision in favor of one of the projects, the Nabucco West or Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, will likely mean the end of the other.
 
       The head of the  European Commission   called on Baku to ensure free, fair and democratic presidential elections, which are scheduled in the country by mid-October 2013, adding that the parties discussed the situation with human rights in Azerbaijan "in an open dialogue."
        However, Barroso  said nothing about the resolution adopted by the deputies of the European parliament  in June,  calling for the release of opposition politician Ilgar Mammadov. Mammadov, who was nominated by  the  ReAl Movement  as a  presidential candidate,  has been imprisoned  since February 2013. He was charged with organizing mass riots.
 
              President Ilham Aliyev, in turn, assured Brussels that in the face of Azerbaijan the European Union has received a reliable partner who claims to play  a significant role in energy supplies to Europe.
 
"I hope that the volumes of gas from Azerbaijan will not be limited only by he oil  produced from" Shah Deniz. "We have more than three trillion cubic meters of proven reserves.  The EU is the main market for Azeri gas," promised Aliyev. But, just like Mr.Barroso, the Azerbaijani leader preferred to keep secret the fate of the TAP and Nabucco.
 
                Asking the question of the human rights situation in Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev said confidently that there were no political prisoners in the country. "None of my political opponents is not in prison,"  assured the president. All civil liberties, including freedom of assembly in Azerbaijan, are followed in Azerbaijan, according to Aliyev; and the political  parties can smoothly carry out their activities. Ilham Aliyevsaid that  the criticisms of Baku  is "based on  the wrong or  biased information."
 
              These statements Aliyev  made on the  background of  the calls of international human rights  agencies, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights,  N.Muyzhnieks,  and even the European Parliament calling the EU leaders to bring up before the official Baku the  issue on release of political prisoners and other problems in the sphere of providing democratic freedoms. —06D—

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