Aliyev backs people`s choice to elect president without limits
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has defended
holding a nationwide poll on removing a two-term limit on the
president, which is scheduled in March.
President Aliyev said the proposal to scrap the limit was aimed at creating more democracy, not keeping him in power indefinitely.
"You will not find any member of the European Union whose leader cannot be elected as many times as the people want him to be in this position. Is it democratic? Yes. So the same should be applied to Azerbaijan," he told Reuters in an interview last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"It is democratic, so if the people support this or that leader they have the right to elect him. So I think lifting the restrictions (on the number of terms) is more democratic than having these restrictions," he said, speaking in English.
Aliyev also accused the West of applying double standards in its criticism of the referendum.
This is the Azerbaijani leader`s first statement concerning the March 18 vote on constitutional changes. The referendum will cover about 30 proposed amendments to the Constitution, but the main one concerns lifting presidential term limits.
Holding such a referendum was initially proposed by MPs from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP). The Constitutional Court approved holding the vote after the proposal overwhelmingly passed in Parliament. The Azerbaijani president is now elected for one five-year term. Changes to Azerbaijan`s Constitution may be enacted only by holding a referendum.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said last year`s presidential election, won by Aliyev with 89 percent of the vote, made "considerable progress" but that it fell short of fully democratic standards.
Aliyev has repeatedly dismissed much of the criticism of Azerbaijan`s record on human rights and democracy.
"If the criticism is justified, and when it comes from a respectable source, we are more than ready and willing to discuss it," he said. "Some of the criticism we sometimes hear from various NGOs actually does not bother (us) because this criticism is mainly biased."
Aliyev said the West often judged human rights selectively and ignored major violations in countries where it had geopolitical interests. He mentioned Armenia, as an example.
"The situation with human rights in Azerbaijan is not bad. If you look at our region you will see that countries in our neighborhood who brutally violate the elementary human rights of their people have not become the subject of criticism."
"Sometimes those countries that are considered to be more friendly or more close or more, how to say it, more associated with the West, if they do something wrong it is not noticed."
"But if Azerbaijan, which is also friendly to the West but which pursues its own independent policy, does one percent of what those other countries do, then we immediately become a subject of criticism."
President Aliyev said the proposal to scrap the limit was aimed at creating more democracy, not keeping him in power indefinitely.
"You will not find any member of the European Union whose leader cannot be elected as many times as the people want him to be in this position. Is it democratic? Yes. So the same should be applied to Azerbaijan," he told Reuters in an interview last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"It is democratic, so if the people support this or that leader they have the right to elect him. So I think lifting the restrictions (on the number of terms) is more democratic than having these restrictions," he said, speaking in English.
Aliyev also accused the West of applying double standards in its criticism of the referendum.
This is the Azerbaijani leader`s first statement concerning the March 18 vote on constitutional changes. The referendum will cover about 30 proposed amendments to the Constitution, but the main one concerns lifting presidential term limits.
Holding such a referendum was initially proposed by MPs from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP). The Constitutional Court approved holding the vote after the proposal overwhelmingly passed in Parliament. The Azerbaijani president is now elected for one five-year term. Changes to Azerbaijan`s Constitution may be enacted only by holding a referendum.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said last year`s presidential election, won by Aliyev with 89 percent of the vote, made "considerable progress" but that it fell short of fully democratic standards.
Aliyev has repeatedly dismissed much of the criticism of Azerbaijan`s record on human rights and democracy.
"If the criticism is justified, and when it comes from a respectable source, we are more than ready and willing to discuss it," he said. "Some of the criticism we sometimes hear from various NGOs actually does not bother (us) because this criticism is mainly biased."
Aliyev said the West often judged human rights selectively and ignored major violations in countries where it had geopolitical interests. He mentioned Armenia, as an example.
"The situation with human rights in Azerbaijan is not bad. If you look at our region you will see that countries in our neighborhood who brutally violate the elementary human rights of their people have not become the subject of criticism."
"Sometimes those countries that are considered to be more friendly or more close or more, how to say it, more associated with the West, if they do something wrong it is not noticed."
"But if Azerbaijan, which is also friendly to the West but which pursues its own independent policy, does one percent of what those other countries do, then we immediately become a subject of criticism."
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