Azeri MPs hit back at European Parliament

By Kamal Ali

The Milli Maclis, which is Azerbaijan’s parliament, started its autumn session on Tuesday. The first thing the MPs did was to respond to a recent resolution by the European Parliament criticizing the state of human rights and freedoms in Azerbaijan and calling for immediate release of political prisoners.

The speaker of parliament, Oqtay Asadov, instructed the Azerbaijani members of Euronest, established a few years ago to strengthen ties with the European Parliament, to draw up a statement in response to the resolution. He said Azerbaijan may reconsider its membership of Euronest.    

Valeh Alasgarov, vice speaker of Milli Maclis, provided new and “incontrovertible evidence” about the “hostile” attitude of some MEPs towards Azerbaijan. He said Azerbaijan should ban its non-governmental organizations from receiving grants from the EU as these grants are being used to finance the political opposition and their anti-government activities. 

The EU also funds some government projects in Azerbaijan. The country can reject these funds as well, as it is rich enough to finance its own projects, Alasgarov said.

Siyavush Novruzov, a member of parliament from the ruling New Azerbaijan Party (YAP), made two statements that contradicted each other. On the one hand, Novruzov accused the European Parliament of violating the presumption of innocence as the resolution described Azerbaijani detainees as political prisoners while local courts have yet to convict them.  

On the other hand, Novruzov branded the same detainees as “Armenian spies”, thus violating the presumption of innocence himself. 

Iqbal Agazada, leader of the Umid (Hope) party, was the only one to challenge MPs from the ruling party and pro-government groups.

He mentioned the recent visit to Baku by Vladimir Zhirinovskiy, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, who is known for his critical and even insulting remarks about Azerbaijan. Zhirinovskiy was met warmly in Azerbaijan and was even received by the country’s president, Ilham Aliyev.

“If you are too afraid to tell the truth about Russia’s role in the occupation of Azerbaijani territory [by Armenia] and if you think it was a political move to receive Zhirinovskiy, you should also be afraid of Europe, which has no less leverage to pressure Azerbaijan,” Agazada said. “Suffice it to say that European countries account for 95 percent of our exports.”

Agazada said the attacks by Azerbaijani MPs against the European Parliament were meaningless.  

“Seating here, you can make any statement. Yet, you’d better think about the consequences of your statements.” He urged the government to announce a general amnesty of people listed by the European Union as political prisoners and stop doing things that prompt criticism by international human rights watchdogs.

Bakudaily.Az