Aliyev condemns Bundestag for human rights criticism

Aliyev criticized German lawmakers on Monday for adopting a resolution on June 12, as the Caspian Sea nation hosted the first European Games in Baku, that highlighted a deterioration in rights in Azerbaijan since presidential elections in 2013. The resolution called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to seek the immediate and unconditional release of all "political prisoners” in Azerbaijan and urge Aliyev to guarantee press freedom.

"What on earth does the German Bundestag have to do with Azerbaijan?” Aliyev said in remarks broadcast on state television channel AzTV. "What does the Bundestag think of itself? Is it the master of the world? Or is it the ruler of the world, which everybody else is supposed to obey?”

The remarks highlighted growing tensions between the former Soviet Union’s third-largest oil producer, which offers the only westward route for Central Asian crude that bypasses Russia, and the EU and the U.S. Sixteen senior members of the U.S. Senate wrote to Aliyev last week, urging him to respect human rights.

Aliyev said his country is trying to "keep its distance” from Germany. Azerbaijan doesn’t need any help from Europe’s largest economy and the government in Berlin "shouldn’t take us for anybody else,” he said, in apparent reference to Greece’s need for a German-led bailout.

"We have nothing to ask them for,” Aliyev said. "On the contrary, they need our gas. They need our contracts. They need our oil.”

Criticism of Azerbaijan’s human rights record intensified as it hosted the European Games last month, with the Council of Europe, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch all calling for the release of imprisoned government critics. Aliyev rejected the statements as "pieces of paper” and said his government will never implement them.

"You cannot dictate anything to Azerbaijan,” Aliyev said. "You can only be friends and partners.”

Azerbaijan denies having any political prisoners, saying those arrested or imprisoned have been charged with specific criminal offenses.