Azerbaijan to suspend activity at Euronest
By Aynur Jafarova
The Azerbaijani delegation will suspend its activity in the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (PA), a parliamentary forum to promote political association and further economic integration between the European Union and the Eastern European partners.
The decision was made in connection with the adoption of a relevant clause of the resolution dated October 23, 2013 seriously damaging the reputation of the European Parliament's own monitoring mission for the October 9 presidential elections in Azerbaijan, says an appeal to international organizations by Elkhan Suleymanov, Vice President of Euronest PA and head of the Azerbaijan delegation in the Euronest PA.
"Just in early July this year Azerbaijan was not included in the list of countries for observing the presidential elections and such a decision of the European Parliament was deemed by us as a result of the absence of serious problems in our country," the document said. "As head of the Azerbaijan delegation in Euronest PA, I also valued this step as (acknoledgement of the) absence of problems in Azerbaijan. As a rule, international organizations send their observation missions to countries where there are many problems. Now it is obvious that plans on organizing disorders and sabotage were behind the decision of the European Parliament in early July not to send a mission for observing the elections in Azerbaijan."
According to Suleymanov, the European Parliament therefore tried to damage and undermine Azerbaijan's political reputation in the international arena by not including the country to the list of countries where it decided to send a mission for monitoring the elections, in particular, an invading country in the region such as Armenia as well as Georgia.
"For undefined reasons, later, namely, in early September, the European Parliament changed its opinion and made a decision on sending an observation mission for the elections in Azerbaijan. Afterwards, observation missions were formed, which included all groups and political factions active in the European Parliament, excluding the Green Party," the document said.
According to the document, evidently the authority of the formed election observation missions prompted the European Parliament to refrain from notifying the mission members of its intentions against Azerbaijan and to wait for the results of the election.
Suleymanov also cited a quote by the official observation mission of the European Parliament in Azerbaijan: "We are here not to teach Azerbaijan, but to observe the elections and adherence to the principles of democracy. The elections were free, transparent and fair and in accord with the OSCE and Council of Europe standards."
"Apparently, such a positive evaluation of the observation mission enraged the leadership of the house of Freedom and Unity, which decided to introduce Clause 32 to the European Parliament's draft resolution as an amendment, according to which the elections were not in accordance with the OSCE standards and requirements. One may assume that the leadership and members of the European Parliament forgot or were angered by the positive feedback issued by OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Leonid Kozhara, the European Parliament, PACE and OSCE PA as well as other international election observation missions in Azerbaijan," the document said.
Suleymanov also mentioned in the document that despite the positive evaluations of three of the four international organizations, in particular, the European Parliament, PACE and OSCE PA, the European Parliament inflicted considerable damage to the image of the Human Rights House, which consists of European Parliament, PACE and OSCE PA members, basing on the biased resolution of the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission, which includes low-ranking officials.
"The goal of the biased OSCE/ODIHR's report, which is not based on facts, is to fulfill the instructions of higher-ranking officials, to serve the interests of powerful states in Azerbaijan, to form a negative image about Azerbaijan in the international arena as well as to force Azerbaijan to refuse its territories occupied for over 23 years," the document said.
"Today the European Parliament and other international institutions, despite Azerbaijan's insistent demands on the implementation of the resolutions related to the Azerbaijani territories occupied for more than 23 years, continue to deceive the Azerbaijani people and the international community. Martin Schulz, the President of the European Parliament, says in his reciprocal letter to me: "Azerbaijan and Armenia should solve this complicated issue on their own".
"This was not the case even during the Soviet dictatorship and it is absurd when an international organization, failing to take into account the opinion of its observation mission, takes as a basis the resolution of the ordered and biased organization, OSCE/ODIHR, trying to slander an independent state," the document said.
The appeal was sent to Martin Schulz, Leonid Kozhara, PACE President Jean-Claude Mignon, OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ranko Krivokapic, as well as all members of the European Parliament.
The Foreign Ministry's statement issued on the October 9 election reads that long-term and short-term election observation was conducted by more than 53,000 observers, including 1,300 international observers, invited by the government and parliament of Azerbaijan, who represented 100 countries and 50 international and non-governmental organizations.