SENIOR AZERBAIJANI OFFICIAL SEES IMPROVED DEMOCRACY AT HOME
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Sept 27 2013
Elnur Aslanov
27 September 2013 /MAHIR ZEYNALOV, Ä°STANBUL
A senior Azerbaijani official from the presidential administration
has hailed the progress the oil- and gas-rich country has made in the
past two decades in consolidating democracy and increasing prosperity.
Elnur Aslanov, chief of the Presidential Administration’s Political
Analysis and Information Department, talked about the country’s
improving democratic development and rapidly shifting face. Calling his
country a nation with an “eastern mentality and western pragmatism,”
Aslanov had no doubt that Azerbaijan has made great progress toward
democracy, noting that there is still a road ahead.
Aslanov’s remarks come at a time when nearly a dozen presidential
candidates, including incumbent President Ilham Aliyev, are campaigning
for the office in a vote slated for next month. Offering a glimpse
into Azerbaijan’s domestic politics, economic development and foreign
policy, Aslanov presented a country that rose from the ashes in a
troubled region still facing poverty and devastating wars.
Aslanov noted that recent polls showed Aliyev in the lead with a
nearly 80 percent approval rating, a sign that the current president
will likely emerge victorious in next month’s election for his
third straight win. Despite having the wind in its sails, the harder
work of matching the expectations of the public lies ahead for the
government, and the unresolved conflict with neighboring Armenia over
Nagorno-Karabakh has been lingering at the top of the agenda for years.
Aslanov continued that political reforms are being conducted in
parallel with economic development in the country, where an oil
windfall catapulted an impoverished nation in the early 1990s into
one of the region’s powerhouses. Azerbaijan has survived severe global
financial meltdown over the past five years. The Azerbaijani official
said that authorities have taken very important steps in establishing
democratic institutions, political parties and pluralism, and that
the establishment and strengthening of democratic processes and
institutions is the responsibility of the Azerbaijani government. He
spoke about an independent media and said unhindered Internet access
provides a “very wide” platform for any political force in the country
to present its programs to the electorate. He pointed to a number of
bloggers, political parties, media outlets, Internet TV channels and
radio stations as evidence of the step-by-step progress of democracy
in Azerbaijan.
“Democracy is not a concept like an apple that you buy and make
it happen,” Aslanov said, referring to a famous quotation from
late President Heydar Aliyev, who argued for a long process of
managed democracy. Aslanov championed a better democracy when a new
intellectual generation emerges with a new vision for the future,
pointing to a government plan to send at least 5,000 students abroad
to study with full financial support. He also stressed that more than
15,000 Azerbaijan students are studying abroad, which means what he
called the creation of a new “intellectual class” that will provide
fertile ground for Azerbaijan’s economic and political development
in the future.
When asked about the government’s policies since the last presidential
elections, Aslanov preferred to look at the issue as a whole and said
the country’s progress started in 1993 with Heydar Aliyev and his
virtuosic oil and social-economic strategy, which he said has been
yielding tangible fruit since 2003. The official observed that the
number of people below the poverty line has fallen significantly,
from 50 to 6 percent, in the past 10 years, while the state budget
expanded tenfold, reaching nearly $30 billion. Aslanov said that
Azerbaijan’s military budget at the moment is bigger than the entire
budget of Armenia, a neighboring country that occupied 20 percent of
Azerbaijani territory in a full-fledged war in the early 1990s.
Aslanov said that Azerbaijan’s current economy accounts for nearly
80 percent of the economy of the entire South Caucasus — clear
evidence of Azerbaijan’s development. He also observed that the look
of the capital Baku, as well as those of other provinces, is swiftly
changing, while the government has created more than a million jobs,
a significant number for a country of nine million. He added that the
financial support the government allocates for the youth increased
by a striking 100 times in the past 10 years, highlighting the
government’s serious attempts to improve the conditions in which
youths live and work.
Regarding the country’s political opposition, Aslanov complained about
the lack of concrete initiatives for the improvement of society among
today’s opposition leaders, some of whom briefly ruled the country
after the chaotic collapse of the Soviet Union but had to abandon
power due to severe economic hardship and the ongoing war with Armenia.
Although the official said that it wouldn’t be right for a bureaucrat
like him to criticize the programs of opposition leaders, he commented
on some ideas put forward by the opposition — including the suggestion
that foreign investments made with state oil money should be brought
back to Azerbaijan and distributed to the public. Aslanov said that
and similar ideas are proof that the opposition leaders “have no idea
about inflation or the appropriate management of finance.”
Aslanov assured that measures to ensure “full democratic conditions”
for the elections are underway. He declined to say these conditions
are fully established now because the process is “ongoing and
progressing.” He added that although the idea of “perfect” elections
is a bit utopian, even in leading advanced democracies, Azerbaijan
will take necessary steps and measures to ensure that the will of
the people is expressed in genuine, free and fair elections.
The opposition in Azerbaijan has long complained that the government
rigged elections and that there is no democratic environment for the
opposition to express their grievances. Long- and short-term election
observation missions pointed to some defects and shortcomings in
their reports on previous elections, but also noted that the polls
constitute a step forward toward healthy democracy.
Aslanov said that 1,000 polling stations out of a total of 5,000
are equipped with cameras that will make it easier for “anyone
in the world to observe how the voting and counting is conducted”
in next month’s presidential elections. He noted that hundreds of
foreign election observers have been invited to Azerbaijan and that
institutions like the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human
Rights of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
(OSCE/ODIHR), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
(PACE), the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of
the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have already established
observation missions.
“We are creating full conditions for open and transparent elections, we
are decisive,” Aslanov said, adding that the elections will determine
the future of the Azerbaijani people and that the government is
interested in holding these elections democratically. He said no
government would take action that would only invite criticism.
Regarding Internet freedoms, Aslanov underlined that the government
has always been against imposing restrictions. “And it always will
be,” he said, adding that authorities significantly cut the price of
Internet access and that the post-Soviet country has turned from an
Internet transit country into a nation that is directly connected to
the global network of the World Wide Web. His country, he continued,
is the only CIS member that has introduced 4G and has the fastest
growing mobile network.
Aslanov argued that the government is supporting the idea of
transparent, open and rapid improvement of the Internet and rejected
the claims that the Web is being controlled. He added that dozens of
Web TV and radio stations as well as hundreds of pro-government and
outspoken bloggers are contributing to the open nature of the Web. He
pointed to Facebook as an example of a major platform for political
activism in Azerbaijan. It would be impossible for any government to
control the social media platform, he said. “We don’t have any desire
or intention to do that anyway.”
He said it is absolutely normal that opposition activists are posting
status messages on Twitter and that this reflects competition. But he
warned against making personal insults and said that “hiding behind the
walls of the virtual world” and insulting someone is a criminal act.
The Azerbaijani official complained about the stereotypes with which
the country is viewed from the West. This, he claimed, has resulted
in double standards in Western policies in the region. He said the
most evident example of such double standards was the dubious Western
position on the Armenian elections earlier this year. “One candidate
was shot, another ate ballots and the other symbolically declared
himself president,” Aslanov said. “Three out of four presidential
candidates, who had a significant number of followers, declared
the elections illegitimate, while the leading Western institutions
described the vote as democratic.”
Regarding the overall situation in the South Caucasus, Aslanov said
that Azerbaijan, blessed with abundant natural treasures, is located
in an important geostrategic location, bordering with flashpoint Iran
and sitting atop oil riches and huge untapped gas reserves.
Aslanov said Azerbaijan is among the countries that provide energy
security for Europe and is a key transit country for the planned 2014
pullout of NATO troops and military hardware from Afghanistan. He
added that Azerbaijan is rapidly becoming a country that shapes the
region’s future.
He shied from saying Azerbaijan had the energy clout to compete with
Russia, but he said he sees Baku wielding significant power regarding
the diversification of energy transportation.
On the current geopolitical situation of Azerbaijan, Aslanov made
cautious remarks regarding relations with Russia and Iran. He said
that both are important countries for the stability and prosperity
of the region and that Azerbaijan is interested in bolstering ties
with these countries despite sometimes rocky relations.
Aslanov said a recent visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to
Azerbaijan was “successful” and that both Russia and Azerbaijan are
interested in maintaining what he called a “strategic partnership”
between the two countries.
Regarding Iran, Aslanov expressed “regret” over sharp remarks Iran
directed at Azerbaijan as Baku held the Eurovision song contest
last year.
Aslanov accused “some individuals and groups” of trying to damage
Iranian-Azerbaijani ties, without mentioning if they were somehow
linked to the Iranian government. He hailed shared historical and
cultural roots with Iran and said the country has deep-seated state
traditions. Azerbaijan, he said, is interested in preserving good
neighborly ties with Tehran as its stability and prosperity are
directly linked to stability in the South Caucasus.
The Azerbaijani official added that Azerbaijan is working to settle
problems — when they happen between the two nations — through formal
and informal channels.
Aslanov, however, rebuked Iran for its close ties with Armenia,
Azerbaijan’s archenemy, and said that economic privileges granted to
Armenia, especially by Iran, are the primary motivation for Yerevan’s
continuing with its policy of occupation and taking a non-constructive
role in peace talks to settle the perennial Karabakh conflict.
Stressing that Baku is disturbed by Iran’s Armenia policy, Aslanov
said Armenia would behave in a constructive way and act more rationally
if Iran joined Turkey and Azerbaijan in isolating Armenia.
Turkey shut down its border with Armenia in 1993 in a show of
solidarity with Azerbaijan after the aggressor state refused to heed
calls to leave occupied Azerbaijani territories. The two countries
don’t have diplomatic relations.
Aslanov also said that at least 100,000 people leave Armenia every
year due to economic hardship and that Armenia would have acted
more prudently if Iran had put economic and political pressure on
the country.
From: Baghdasarian