Novruz Mammadov Changing Rhetoric towards West and Requires Special Treatment

The official Baku, apparently, corrects its position on the Western states, replacing anger and irritation by a discreet tone.

This conclusion arises from the press conference of the deputy head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov.

In particular, he said that the July 22 visit to Baku of the President of the European Council Donald Tusk "has become a significant event" in relations between Azerbaijan and the EU.

Tusk's visit was planned during the June 21-22 European Games, but it was canceled due to the crisis in Greece, Mammadov said (although according to diplomatic sources, the visit planned for 18 July was canceled because of the refusal to release political prisoners in Baku on the eve of the European Games - Ed).

Next Mammadov acknowledged that since the beginning of the year Baku has had hard claims to European institutions.

"We say that if we work in strategic areas, then we wait for the appropriate assessment. Unfortunately, we waited a long time but did not see this relationship.

In addition, when we slightly criticize the European institutions, the opposition and NGOs argue that the world is collapsing...

Let them work for funding received from their owners, but let them not forget that they are citizens of Azerbaijan. For all time, they did not require the European institutions to demonstrate a fair position in the Karabakh issue and until today they have not uttered a word about the violation of the rights of refugees and internally displaced persons," Mammadov said.

According to him, Azerbaijan has not joined the Association Agreement due to the fact that it does not indicate support for the territorial integrity, although agreements with Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia include such a point.

At the same time, Mammadov noted that during his visit to Baku Tusk stated the European Union's support for the territorial integrity and independence of Azerbaijan: "We have cooperated with the European Union for more than 20 years and now we should not be in a position to show that we no longer want to cooperate. But we expect a fair position on the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, refugees and internally displaced persons," said Mammadov.

"After the meeting with President Ilham Aliyev, Donald Tusk said that the EU supports the independence and sovereignty of Azerbaijan. We got this assessment after a long way," said Mammadov.

At the same time, Baku claims to a special relationship with the EU, going beyond the common format of Eastern Partnership. "We are working on an agreement on strategic partnership with the European Union," said Mammadov.

The US and EU said that Azerbaijan is an important partner and the visit of Richard Hoagland was held in the same spirit. "The delegation on energy from the United States also wished to develop relations. The German side also made a similar proposal, to which we responded favorably. However, I would also like to say that we are true to our position and the attitude towards us has to be changed," Mammadov repeated again. -06D-