THE WEST IS SERIOUS ABOUT AZERBAIJAN

On May 1 touching upon the forthcoming, October 15 presidential elections in our neighbor country, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ann Darcy, proposed merely unsolvable issues to Azerbaijani authorities.

In her view their future cooperation with Azerbaijani government and the civil society will be directed to “holding the first free and fair elections in the history of that country”. It is quite comprehensible that the United States is trying to solve quite different issues, by placing similar inaccessible plank in front of Azerbaijanis authorities.
To have the preliminary picture of the goals of the United States, let’s familiarize ourselves with the list of the organizations, which are going to get 3 million dollars from the US government, for assisting the process of the elections in Azerbaijan – examining the complaints, conducting parallel counting of the votes, organizing pre-election debates, training the law enforcers, etc. They are – the US National Democratic Institute, the Republicans’ International Institute, International Fund of the Electoral System, the American Lawyers’ Association, the International Council of Investigation, and Exchange, which includes the whole “assortment” of the American structures skilled in “colored revolutions”.
Meanwhile the Committee dealing with small grants under the US State Department will start the funding of Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations and social groups.
Before the publication of the names of this rather outstanding organizations, the not less famous “Ago” group was dealing with Azerbaijan, which in its April 22 report attached great importance to making amendments in Azerbaijan’s Electoral Code and emphasized the significance of the adoption of the amended version of the law on “the Freedom of Rallies” with the participation of Venice Committee. The task of ensuring the independence of the national council of the TV and Radio has also been advanced.
So, it turns out that all the American and European structures that used to deal with Georgia and Armenia in winter are sending their “landing forces” to Azerbaijan.
It’s worth mentioning that Azerbaijan’s governing elite is seriously concerned about the steps taken by western structures before the presidential elections in Azerbaijan on October 15, trying to confront their proposals, reports, and suggestions regarding the organization of democratic elections. Meanwhile they are trying to create an impression that allegedly there are no objective or subjective preconditions for the repetition of the events that took place in Georgia and Armenia.
But it is evident that despite the impression of the stability and economic development of Azerbaijan created by Ilham Aliev and his administration, the problems existing in this country are far more complicated than the ones in Georgia and Armenia. Particularly the stressed difference in the development of the capital city Baku and the suburbs, or the dissimilarity of the income of different layers of society, is greater than in any other country in South Caucasus deprived of oil and gas resources.
Unlike Armenia there is also an emphasized dissatisfaction towards the policy of the past years, regarding Karabakh issue, which the pro-oppositional radical powers will definitely speculate during the pre-election campaign.
However the profound motives of the US and European organizations are still not clear. But one thing is evident, that they will over again pursue their double standard policy here, the USA will try to “liven up” the pro-oppositional powers, by giving hopes of victory, on the one hand, and will “work” with Ilham Aliev, trying to extort concessions of geopolitical nature from him, one the other hand.
In our opinion by October 15 the Unites State and all the international structures acting under its patronage, as well as the EU countries will do their best to apply the formula “weak authorities – strong foreign players” in Azerbaijan, the same way as they did in Georgia and Armenia. The thing is, whether or not Azerbaijani pro-oppositional powers will succeed in using all this in strengthening their positions.
In any case the electoral hullabaloo, in store for Azerbaijan, promises to turn into a short but indispensable period for the re-establishment of the internal unity for our people and making Armenia’s foreign policy more active.”
VARDAN GRIGORYAN

| Home | >>

E-mail article | Discuss article new!

RSS © Hayots Ashkhar

Headlines for May 03, 2008

THE WEST IS SERIOUS ABOUT AZERBAIJAN
VARDAN GRIGORYAN
On May 1 touching upon the forthcoming, October 15 presidential elections in our neighbor country, the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ann Darcy, proposed merely unsolvable issues to Azerbaijani authorities. ...
THE FORMULA OF VICTORY
G. KH.
In our reality, May has always been a month of victories: Avarayr, Sardarapat, Shoushi … This seems to be the repeated regularity of our history, which coincides with the awakening of spirit and courage ...
THE LABOR PAINS OF THE ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS
KIMA YEGHYAZARYAN
The Movement Becomes a Party The 2nd congress of the “pan-national movement”, held in the conference hall of the Government yesterday, was far from being considered “revolutionary”. It was rather like ...
THE EAGLES INSPIRED BY THE REVOLUTION
LILIT POGHOSYAN 1
The activists of the rallies came to partake in the “Second Pan-Armenian Congress” of Armenian Pan National Movement taking place in the government session hall, yesterday. The participants of the meetings ...