Public statements of the head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Jean-Claude Mignon in Baku caused mixed reactions among representatives of the civil society of the country.
It should be noted that, in an interview with journalists, Mignon pointed out the fact that “there is a development in Azerbaijan that can not be overlooked.” His was impressed by reducing poverty from 50% to 6%.
He also noticed “strong will” in Azerbaijan to make progress in order to meet the criteria of the Council of Europe. Mignon said: “one can not expect too much from a country that has just taken the path of democracy,” at the same time.
“Such statements cause bewilderment and a lot of questions,” said the head of the Legal Education Society Intigam Aliyev to Turan agency.
According to him, Mignon also spoke at a closed meeting with representatives of civil society, the details of which Aliyev did not disclose in terms of confidentiality.
However, if the Council of Europe believes that the demands of Azerbaijani activists to ensure freedom of assembly, stop persecution for political reasons, put an end to corruption are too exaggerated, is there any sense for Azerbaijan to be a member of the Council of Europe?
According to Aliyev, western politicians are increasingly demonstrating conformity to the facts of human rights violations in Azerbaijan. Seeing that, you begin to believe the authors of the report “Caviar Diplomacy”.
There is an opinion among western politicians, that excessive pressure on the authorities of Azerbaijan can have the opposite effect and the country can slide down to the level of Belarus, which was expelled from the Council of Europe.
However, according to Aliyev, “in some areas the situation in Azerbaijan is much worse than in Belarus”. “The government of Azerbaijan not only beats, arrests, and slanders its opponents but also spends huge amounts of money stolen from the people to bribe the opposition, journalists, human rights activists. Moreover, not only their own, but also international organizations, foreign diplomats, deputies, members of foreign governments”.
The “caviar diplomacy” report of the Council of Europe portrays this. In the state where teachers, doctors receive salaries of 150-200 euros, in many villages there is no gas, light and water, the government spends on organizing Eurovision more than Germany, Sweden, Norway. The government spends millions on repairing the Louvre, opening a park named after Heydar Aliyev in Mexico and other similar events,” Aliyev said.
Recently, international organizations, including the Council of Europe, have completely capitulated to the unwillingness of the governments of a number of post-Soviet countries not to fulfill their obligations to these organizations. For a long time, international organizations, giving the advantage of the “carrot and stick” policy, hoped that they could encourage the Government to reforms. But they did not understand that such governments are not amenable to reforms,” Aliyev said.
However, according to the executive secretary of the civil movement “Republican Alternative” (ReAl) Natiga Jafarli, the curtsies of Mignon to Baku’s side are part of diplomacy. Mignon belongs to that category of politicians who prefer not to irritate with public statements, but actively influence during confidential negotiations.
During a meeting with civil society activists, Mignon made it clear that the Council of Europe will work for the implementation of the PACE January session, which contains demands for democratic reforms. In connection with the upcoming chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (May – November 2014) Baku will be forced to take serious steps in the field of democracy and human rights.