WASHINGTON DC. July 27, 2011: “U.S. is concerned about state of fundamental freedoms in Azerbaijan”, said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Thomas O. Melia, who recently returned from his visit to Azerbaijan. Melia spoke at the House Foreign Affairs Europe and Eurasia Subcommittee hearing on “Eastern Europe: The State of Democracy and Freedom” July 26, TURAN’s Washington DC correspondent reports.
Specifically, Melia raised concern over the restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, as well as “a very limited capacity of citizens to change their government through peaceful elections”.
“Elections in Azerbaijan continue to fall below international standards”, the Administration official said, citing the OSCE ODIHR assessment from the latest parliament elections. “November 7, 2010 parliamentary elections included a deficient candidate registration process, limits on freedom of assembly and expression, a restrictive political environment, skewed media coverage of candidates, and falsifying vote counts”.
Mr. Melia also noted that the imprisonment of independent activists such as Bakhtiyar Hajiyev, opposition party activists Jabbar Savalanli, and human rights defender Vidadi Iskenderov, is a continuing problem widely perceived to be politically motivated.
“We continue to urge Azerbaijan to resolve these and related cases in a manner consistent with the government‘s commitment to freedom of assembly and expression”, Melia said.
He said that the Azeri government should allow the National Democratic Institute and Human Rights House in the country, to resume their activities, and permit Voice of America and RFE/RL to use national FM frequencies. “We urge greater respect for religious freedom, including permitting the registration of minority religions and allowing individuals to manifest their beliefs through religious attire. I raised many of these issues with senior government officials during my visit”, he added.
According to the Deputy Assistant Secretary, in all three South Caucasus countries, US government programs promote a number of universal values, including democratic electoral processes and capacity building for defense lawyers, human rights organizations, and independent media.
David Kramer, President of Freedom House, raised the question whether the scenarios seen in Cairo and Tunis were possible in Moscow, Minsk, Baku, and elsewhere in Eurasia.
Of the three states in the Caucasus, only Georgia shows signs of progress towards democracy, while Azerbaijan showed more backsliding, he said.
“The West is interested in seeing these countries become more democratic; policy should include deeper involvement and response to violations, not silence. This will not be easy given competing demands elsewhere in the world, but if the majority of countries in Eurasia continue to veer off the democratic path, the challenges for the West will only grow”, he said.
Nadia M. Diuk from the National Endowment for Democracy also talked about Azerbaijan. “Despite the welcome release of the imprisoned youth movement bloggers and a leading independent journalist earlier this year, arrests of democracy activists continue in Azerbaijan, where the overall trend is a slow and painful decline of political pluralism and civil society”, she said. “Constitutional amendments adopted in March 2009 removed presidential term limits, the November 2010 parliamentary elections were considered to be the worst ever, and an attempt to introduce an extremely restrictive NGO law in 2009 was diverted only as a result of international pressure. Civic activists and human rights defenders continue to suffer harassment, and the freedom of assembly is non-existent. Many young activists have recently been detained, usually on trumped up charges of narcotics possession, hooliganism or other fabricated criminal offences. One youth activist imprisoned in 2005, Ruslan Bashirli, is still in jail”.
Compared to Azerbaijan, the prospects for democracy and freedom look more hopeful in Armenia, the analysts agreed, where protest rallies of up to 15,000 people have taken place recently and political prisoners who were held after the 2008 protests have been released.
According to Diuk, the US should look to this region as the source of a great wealth of experience on how the enemies of freedom are ever on the alert to assert their dominance, but also how the forces for freedom and democracy will always find a way to push back in a struggle that demands our support.
“And as we look forward to a period of austerity, we should be mindful that a strategic and concerted effort through both diplomatic and non-governmental actors is the most cost-effective way to achieve these aims”, Diuk added (Turan).
