Azernews.Az

International rights watchdog Freedom House has again included Azerbaijan into the list of unfree countries, in an assessment that has drawn criticism from officials and public representatives.
It claimed in the latest edition of Freedom in the World, the annual survey of global political rights and civil liberties, that the situation in the South Caucasus republic has worsened.
Freedom House`s report, released Monday, linked the alleged worsening with the concentration of power by President Ilham Aliyev and the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (NAP).
The group said the political situation in neighboring Georgia and Armenia has also worsened, but rated the two countries as "partly free".
Of note, Freedom House has rated Azerbaijan as an unfree country for three consecutive years.
The assessment has drawn conflicting responses in Azerbaijan. Although opposition leaders and some pundits have regarded it as fair, officials and NAP executives disagree with the feedback.
Elnur Aslanov, the head of a President`s Office department, dismissed the report as biased, noting that democratic development in Azerbaijan is evident. "Freedom House has consistently adhered to a biased, non-objective stance toward the developments ongoing in the country."
We recall that President Aliyev also criticized Freedom House in a media interview during a visit to Italy late in 2008, saying such organizations are not objective and are trying to display Azerbaijan in a negative light. He emphasized that Freedom House is a non-governmental organization with its own agenda and political interests. The group, he stressed, has some friends among opposition representatives in Azerbaijan, therefore, its statements about the country cannot be considered true.
The NAP deputy executive secretary, Mubariz Gurbanly, stressed that Azerbaijan is a country with open borders where freedoms are respected.
"Citizens are at liberty to engage in any activities, while `unfree` means that restrictions are imposed on people`s ties to other countries and their economic and political undertakings," Gurbanly said.
Ali Karimli, chairman of the opposition Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan, has argued that Freedom House`s report was objective. He maintained that the presence of so-called political prisoners in the country, including ongoing imprisonment of three journalists, and alleged failure to ensure political freedoms and freedom of assembly had caused Azerbaijan`s rating in such reports to decline.
Karimli claimed that it had been revealed in 2008 that the freedom of electing and being elected in the country is virtually non-existent. According to him, whereas restrictions on these liberties could be cited in the past, last year`s presidential elections proceeded without any rivalry whatsoever.
In its overall assessment of the worldwide situation, Freedom House said 2008 marked the third consecutive year in which global freedom suffered a decline. This setback was most pronounced in Sub-Saharan Africa and the non-Baltic former Soviet Union, although it affected most other regions of the world. Furthermore, the decline in freedom coincided with the onset of a forceful reaction against democracy by a number of powerful authoritarian regimes, including Russia and China, according to the survey`s findings.
It said further that non-Baltic countries of the former Soviet Union continued their decade-long decline, now ranking below Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East on several survey indicators. Russia and Georgia, which went to war over South Ossetia, were among the region`s notable declines, as well as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Moldova. Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe remains strong, despite setbacks in Bulgaria and Macedonia.
Freedom House has been working to support freedoms and tracking political rights and civil liberties worldwide since 1972.