AZERBAIJANI MP ACCUSES EU – INTERVIEW
APA, Azerbaijan
Nov 7 2014
[ 07 November 2014 12:40 ]
“The meeting mostly saw hard points between me and 6 members of
Armenian delegation”
Baku – APA. Chairman of Azerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA,
Elkhan Suleymanov’s interview to APA
– You attended the next meeting of the Euronest PA and returned
to Azerbaijan. How would you assess the meeting as a Chairman of
Azerbaijani Delegation to the Euronest PA?
– The meeting of Political Affairs, Human Rights and Democracy
Committee of the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly was held on 4th
November in Brussels, Belgium. A number of issues were discussed
in the meeting, where Mr. Tibbels, Head of Division on Eastern
Partnership from European External Action Service, Mr. Blockmans,
senior research fellow of the Center for European Political Studies,
and Dr. Beata Martin- Rozumilowicz, Head of OSCE/ODIHR Election
Department, were invited as well. Taking into consideration the
importance of discussed issues and very tense debates, I would like
to focus on a number of points.
Among this, I’d like to note the presentation by Mr. Tibbels, Head
of Division for Eastern Partnership, Regional cooperation & OSCE on
the development of the Eastern Partnership for 2014-17. Mr. Tibbels,
Head of Division of EEAS, asked in his presentation about necessary
measures for Azerbaijan to do to join the Association Agreement. I
took the floor, stating that Azerbaijan is interested in close
cooperation with the European Union and thus, tries to use all
opportunities. Azerbaijan supports the bilateral form of partnership
with EU. Nevertheless, Azerbaijan has certain expectations from the
European Union and believes that for this purpose, the European Union
should make some efforts and refrain from pressing Azerbaijan on
different excuses, including the excuses of human rights. Azerbaijan
wants more cooperation with the EU, maybe a new treaty, but only if
the EU treats it more like an equal partner, with more respect and
invests more in its security – like it does with Moldova, Georgia
and especially Ukraine.
Taking this opportunity, I also asked some questions to Head of
Division from EEAS. For example, I tried to learn his view on how
the EU can help find a solution to the Armenian occupation of Azeri
territories, as well as how will Armenia deal with the European
Union if it has signed a Customs Union Treaty with Russia, which
makes it incompatible with further cooperation with the EU. I also
suggested Mr. Tibbels whether the money from the European Neighbourhood
Instrument would be better suited helping strengthen the cooperation
between the EU and the countries which want a partnership, instead
of Armenia.
Furthermore, I noted in my speech that the territorial integrity of all
Eastern Partnership countries, namely Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, and
Moldova, except Armenia, was violated, and this is a direct threat to
European security system. It was stated over and again in the Euronest
PA that this institution doesn’t deal with the resolution of conflicts
and thus, doesn’t discuss them. If this institution doesn’t discuss the
most important problems of the member states and make no efforts for
their resolution, then the perspectives of this institution is obscure.
– The agenda also covered the presentation on the sanctions of the
European Union against Russia…
– Yes, according to the agenda, Mr. Steven Blockmans, Senior Research
Fellow of the Centre for European Policy Studies spoke about the
challenges facing the Eastern Partnership, in the context of sanctions
implemented by EU and Russia, the conflict in eastern Ukraine and
threats over security in Europe. Taking the floor, I asked him the
reason for lack of sanctions against Armenia due to its occupation
of Azerbaijani territories for over 23 years in the context of EU’s
support to Ukraine and the EU’s role in the elimination of this
occupation in general. The senior research fellow of the Centre for
European Policy Studies was ironic to the question and refused outright
to answer it, stating that “We don’t discuss here the question of
Nagorno Karabakh”.
– Probably, the presentation by Head of OSCE/ODIHR Election Department
was one of interesting topics for Azerbaijan…
– The presentation by Dr. Beata Martin-Rozumilowicz, Head of OSCE/ODIHR
Election Department dealt with the 2014 election observation activities
in the Eastern European partner countries.
Taking note of the fact that there were no elections in Azerbaijan
during this year, I was surprised to hear quoting of Azerbaijan in
this presentation. Dr. Beata Martin-Rozumilowicz voiced very critical
opinions against Azerbaijan in her summary. Taking the floor, I brought
to the attention of participants that the elections in Azerbaijan were
held in 2013, and that the Council of Europe, European Parliament,
and OSCE PA evaluated these elections as free, fair, transparent, and
democratic ones. Moreover, I noted that OSCE/ODIHR Election Observation
Mission is composed of low ranking officials from different member
states, who easily undergo various kinds of pressure.
These officials base their reports not on the facts, but on the
orders of their leaders. Therefore, this mission was distinguished
with biased reporting in several recent elections and OSCE/ODIHR
election observation mission lost its credibility.
– Mr. Suleymanov, how do you see the perspectives of partnership
between EU and EaP countries in general? Is this cooperation
forward-looking? What does Azerbaijan expect from this cooperation?
– One of the main points in the Committee meeting was presentation by
Co-Rapporteurs Mr Michal BONI, EP and Mr Victor DOLIDZE, Georgia, and
discussion of the draft report on “Engaging in a stronger partnership
between the EU and Eastern European partner countries through the
European Neighbourhood Instrument for 2014-2020”. I welcomed the
importance of the report for EaP countries and noted that the claims
that Azerbaijan has refrained from signing the Association Agreement,
has “tarnished” the Eastern Partnership are unacceptable. Azerbaijan
is committed to this initiative, but it also needs to see significant
improvements from the EU side. The agreements to be signed have to
be in advantage of both sides and the Eastern Partnership can only
be made better by that. Another point in my speech was the fact that
Armenia actually refused the cooperation with Eastern Partnership by
singing the Customs Union Treaty with Russia. I expressed my concern
on the fact that this issue wasn’t mentioned in the report, despite
Armenia’s endangering the cooperation, and focused the attention of
the co-rapporteurs on the importance of better reflecting this fact
in their report.
I spoke about another question of concern: If we are to condemn Russia
for its behavior in Ukraine and Georgia, why are we not condemning
Armenia for its occupation of Azeri territories?
I further stated that it was false to present recent developments
in Nagorno Karabakh as a conflict and that it aimed at confusing
the international community: “How could it be called a conflict if
Armenian armed forces occupied the Azerbaijani territories?”
Therefore, I brought to the attention of co-rapporteurs the necessity
of using a word “occupation” instead of the word “conflict”.
– What was the attitude of Armenian MPs to your speech and proposals?
Generally, how did the members present meet the proposals of the
Chairman of Azerbaijani Delegation?
– One of the main points of attention during the debates was
outnumbering of Armenian MPs other delegations at the Committee
meeting. The Armenian delegation was represented by totally 6 members,
including 3 MPs and 3 substitutes. Furthermore, 2 representatives of
Armenian Embassy and several Armenian NGOs attended the meeting. This
fact once more proved that Armenians are organized, gallant and
patriotic. Armenians are seriously concerned about our efforts on
presenting them as an aggressor on the international level and this
makes them more militant and combines all Armenians together. We
should not be alone in our fight against the crafty aggressor.
The Committee meeting was chaired by the vice-chair, Armenian MP
Naira Zohrabyan. I’ve to mention that regretfully, only I represented
the Azerbaijani delegation at this meeting and undoubtedly, the
meeting mostly saw hard points between me and 6 members of Armenian
delegation. Thus, they tried to interrupt my speech, monopolized
the discussion, and constantly blocked my attempts to elicit obvious
answers on key subjects from the European speakers.
Even Ms. Zohrabyan tried to interrupt me several times saying that
“you only want to discuss about Nagorno-Karabakh”. Another Armenian
MP Mr. Arzoumanyan attacked Azerbaijan because of the imprisonment of
Leyla Yunus, saying that “Ms. Yunus is a very close friend cooperating
with me for many years and sister of mine”. I immediately mentioned
that Leyla Yunus was accused of treason and was investigated for
facilitating the leaking of Azeri secrets to Armenia and “Arzoumanyan’s
words prove this fact”. In fact, I believe that it is impossible
to be friends with any Armenian, which has committed and continues
committing massacres against the Azerbaijani people and has occupied
our native lands for over 23 years.
Generally, the speakers were explicitly prevented by the Armenian
members to express themselves on the topic, as if occupation of
Nagorno-Karabakh was discussed at the Armenian Parliament. This meeting
resembled a meeting of Armenian Parliament, with only Armenians or
pro-Armenian experts and MEPs voicing their views, repeating over
and over the same weak arguments they use to try to justify their
occupation of Azeri territory. This Euronest meeting held in Brussels
was almost the preparation for the meeting to be held in Armenia on
March. The Armenians, who apparently occupied the territories of the
other state, joined the Customs Union, but the names of which was
not mentioned in the report in question, monopolized the meeting. EU
is a hypocrite organization, where Armenians always did and will
do whatever they want. They are under “umbrella” here, as in all
international organizations.
Finally, I should inform that the European Parliament component was
represented at the Committee meeting with new members. The approaches
of new members to this or other issues indicate that EP component
of the Euronest PA will pursue a guarantee policy against this or
other kinds of pressure and sanctions on the aggressor’s behaviour,
by taking Armenia under its umbrella.
– Mr. Suleymanov, why did only you represent Azerbaijan, while 6
Armenian representatives attended the meeting?
– We faced such a situation, as Azerbaijan sent only one member from
each committee to this meeting of Euronest. Apparently, the reason is
the presence of the opinions that this meeting was not so important
for Azerbaijan. As I have already mentioned above, Armenians are more
organized and responsible on such issues. And as usual, we haven’t
learnt to evaluate our enemies as necessary yet and try not to
reply the attacks of enemy in similar way, but to protect ourselves
from these attacks. I would like to give an example. Recently I was
questioned by one of my European colleagues, who asked me: “2014 was a
year of Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship in PACE. Nevertheless, this year saw
hard attacks and continuous pressure by PACE against your country. The
report on “Azerbaijan’s Chairmanship of the Council of Europe: what
follow-up on respect for human rights?”, which could serious undermine
the image of your country, was presented and focused the attention
all over the world. Why didn’t Azerbaijan take this opportunity to
call at least one meeting regarding the occupation of its territories
and hundreds of thousands Azerbaijan citizens, rights of whom had been
grossly violated?” My colleague meant that the Azerbaijani side should
fight more actively against this injustice. I fully share his opinion.
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