Hikmat Hajiyev: You Cannot Turn Bilateral Relations into Object of Pressure and Public Debates

In the Azerbaijan Republic the rule of law is ensured and fundamental rights and freedoms, including freedom of the media, are fully secured. This was stated by the official representative of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev in an interview with the Voice of America, commenting on criticism of the United States of problems with human rights and democratic freedoms in Azerbaijan.

At the same time, he pointed to the inadmissibility of the use of criticism in the bilateral relations.

According to him, in Azerbaijan, nobody is persecuted on political grounds and arrests of people are carried out on the basis of the Criminal Code for specific criminal acts.

"Therefore, the transformation of this matter into an object of general public discussions and arranging a flurry of criticism against Azerbaijan is an unacceptable approach," said Hajiyev.

In his view, all issues of bilateral relations should be discussed on the basis of a specific dialogue in an atmosphere of cooperation, without conversion of the state into an object of criticism and pressure.

Hajiyev said that certain circles coordinate and centralize a campaign with elements of the "cold war" propaganda against Azerbaijan and it can be called "psychological warfare."

Hajiyev noted that NGOs financed from the US budget take part in this campaign.

"Although these NGOs call themselves NGOs, in fact, their financial resources and principles of activity do not allow to call them NGOs," said Hajiyev.

He repeated the words of Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov that the United States should clarify the question of anti-Azerbaijan activities of American NGOs financed from the state budget.

Azerbaijan accuses America of pro-Armenian position, but in contrast to Russia and France, the United States did not recognize the "Armenian genocide." Is it logical, in this regard, that Baku criticizes Washington?

Answering this question, Hajiyev acknowledged that indeed in the 1990s the United States made a lot of support to strengthen the independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and the realization of its energy projects and the Azerbaijani side highly appreciates this.

Azerbaijan, in turn, has contributed to the fight against international terrorism and to the mission of the United States in this area.

On the issue of "genocide", then in this case the United States has its own policy and there should be considered US-Turkish relations, Washington's Middle East policy and the role of Ankara in it.

Under the previous administrations the United States has formed a constructive attitude to the cooperation between Azerbaijan and America. Now, however, certain circles through a number of NGOs show lack of interest in developing relations with Azerbaijan and tend to damage the achievements in the bilateral relations.

Commenting on the idea of ​​Victoria Nuland to establish a bilateral framework for human rights, Hajiyev said Azerbaijan considers human rights an internal affair and does not intend to submit it to bilateral discussions.

At the same time, Azerbaijan is cooperating with the UN Council on Human Rights and the Council of Europe in this area.

Hajiyev also voiced expectations of Baku from Washington.

He noted that in recent years the number of visits of US high-level representatives to Azerbaijan has dramatically reduced. At the same time, the USA responds to some "minor issues" in Azerbaijan at the highest level and in Washington they have to think about it.

In the Azerbaijani society, according to Hajiyev, there are large and serious expectations from the US.

If the US is really concerned about human rights and the restoration of justice, we must first of all contribute to the restoration of rights of 1 million internally displaced persons – Azerbaijanis banished from their lands as a result of the Armenian aggression.

There are many facts that the US helped to resolve conflicts and one of the examples is the Balkans.

However, the US did not demonstrate such a participation in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

"The Azerbaijani people primarily wait for settlement of the conflict within the internationally recognized borders, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. In this sense, we have objective expectations from the United States. We hope for an early realization of this," said Hajiyev. -03B-