Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani officials have severely criticized the European Parliament’s resolution that condemned alleged violations of human rights and media freedom in the country.

Novruz Mammadov, the Presidential Administration official in charge of foreign relations, termed as "disappointing" the EP’s holding urgent discussions on Azerbaijan and its passage of the biased resolution "without any serious grounds".

The EP resolution, issued on Thursday in Strasbourg, condemned what it called the worsening human rights situation in Azerbaijan. It expressed "deep concern" over the alleged crackdown on opposition protests and blamed the authorities for "increasing harassment and intimidation" of journalists and political activists. The MEPs denounced the prosecution of two young activists allegedly over their calls for antigovernment protests. They called for the release of the two bloggers and the jailed newspaper editor Eynulla Fatullayev and urged the government to guarantee the protection of journalists in the country.

Mammadov said such an assessment of some developments in Azerbaijan, issued without a thorough scrutiny or an enquiry about the views of government agencies, aims to tarnish Azerbaijan’s image on the world stage.

"On the other hand, such an approach is absolutely incompliant with the unique relationship we have forged with the European Union and deals a blow upon the established mutual confidence. Azerbaijan cannot find a logical explanation for this step, backed up by certain political forces, and considers it a graphic example of double standards."

According to Mammadov, the forces in question are seeking "to overshadow" Azerbaijan’s consistent efforts on its path to European integration and to diminish mutual confidence.

"Passage of that resolution ahead of the European Parliament president’s first visit to the country serves a purpose to complicate the atmosphere of cooperation and divert the attention in the wrong direction."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said the EP’s adopting such a resolution amid the fast-paced reforms aimed at democratic development in Azerbaijan "is at least astonishing and raises a lot of questions". He said that along with being "one-sided and biased", the resolution is based on false information, is overly politicized, and most of the issues addressed had not been scrutinized.

"The allegations that there are obstacles to free speech in a country where representatives of the media, including opposition media, have for many years been provided with financial aid, have seen their debt cancelled…are illogical and biased," Polukhov said. "The passage of such a resolution on Azerbaijan at a time the situation with freedom of speech and human rights here is better than that in neighboring countries is not in line with the level of relations between Azerbaijan and the European Parliament and could seriously harm them."