Azerbaijani MP urges OSCE to deal with violation of Azerbaijani refugees’ rights
By Sara Rajabova
Some representatives of the international organizations, remaining indifferent towards the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by Armenia and its refugee and IDPs problems over the past two decades, still continue to put pressure on Azerbaijan for human rights issues.
“Instead of using the human rights issues as a tool of pressure on Azerbaijan, the U.S. representative to OSCE would better to pay attention to the fact of mass violation of rights of more than a million Azerbaijani refugees and IDPs as a result of occupation of the country’s territories by Armenia,” Azerbaijani MP, political analyst Asim Mollazade told Trend Agency.
He was commenting on criticism by Deputy Chief of the U.S. Mission to the OSCE Kate Marie Byrnes against Azerbaijan during the meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.
Kate Marie Byrnes, a representative to the OSCE from the United States, the country that is engaged in peace talks on Armenian- Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, has criticized the situation of civil society in Azerbaijan, and urged its government to enable its citizens to freely express their views without fear of reprisal.
Mollazade said OSCE hasn’t achieved any progress towards peace over the past 20 years. “All the fundamental principles of the OSCE have been violated, the organization’s member – Armenia - has occupied the territories of the neighboring country,” he said.
Mollazade went on to add that despite the UN Security Council resolutions, Armenia hasn’t been criticized or sanctioned yet by international organizations.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.
Mollazade noted that some resolutions have been adopted against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis, however, for some unknown reasons; the occupation of Azerbaijani territories has been forgotten.
It seems that today, while discussing the issues related to the civil society and human rights, some attempts are made to divert the public attention from the main issues related to security and territorial integrity of the OSCE countries, he said.
Meanwhile, Azay Guliyev, Azerbaijani MP and Deputy Chairman of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Political Affairs and Security, said Byrnes wants to build a career by criticizing Azerbaijan.
Guliyev said he knows Byrnes as a person who is famous for criticizing Azerbaijan. “Apparently, she wants to build a career by criticizing Azerbaijan and therefore she targets the country over issues connected with the civil society and human rights violations.”
He believes that Byrnes is doing it purposefully, which is unacceptable. “I don’t remember her criticizing any other country this way. Therefore, it is worth to find out which goals are pursued here.”
“The main issue is that the freedom of speech and expression has been fully ensured in Azerbaijan. No one has difficulties in expressing his or her own opinion and position,” he said.
Guliyev went on to note that all this is systematically controlled from several centers.
“I would advise the international organizations and the countries closely cooperating with Azerbaijan not to come under the influence of such adventurist circles easily,” he added.