Azeri paper slates leader for pro-Russian stance
Azadliq, Baku
3 Nov 04
An Azerbaijani opposition newspaper has criticized Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev for joining Moscow’s campaign to support
Ukrainian leader Leonid Kuchma’s candidate in the presidential
elections. Azadliq said that Baku was standing by Moscow in the fight
between the West and Russia for influence in the region. While the
USA and Europe are promoting democracy, Ilham Aliyev is with Russia
which supports dictatorship, the newspaper said. The following is
the text of Ali Rza’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on 3
November headlined “Narrowing siege” and subheaded “Another defeat
of authoritarianism” and also subheaded “Why is Ilham Aliyev beside
the losers”; subheadings are as published:
The first ballot of the presidential election in Ukraine is now in
the past. Two main candidates in the polls, [Prime Minister Viktor]
Yanukovych and [Viktor] Yushchenko, have passed into the second ballot
by a narrow margin. Which of them wins will be known in a run-off on
21 November. However, based on the stream of events it is rather easy
to predict that the winner will be Yushchenko.
Invincible democracy
Dictatorship losing in Ukraine, too
Ukraine’s incumbent leader [Leonid] Kuchma showed certain initiatives
to extend the lifespan of his regime well before the election. Among
those was also an attempt to create a legal opportunity for Kuchma
to stand for president for a third time. But none of these attempts
worked. In the end Kuchma identified his political successor and
lobbied for his election as president. This is incumbent Prime
Minister Yanukovych.
Kiev’s all administrative and financial resources had been mobilized in
favour of Yanukovych. Moscow too was providing every kind of explicit
and clandestine support for him. He had been even receiving financial
and moral support from other neighbours defending authoritarianism
like the leadership of Azerbaijan. All the help provided to Yanukovych
was calculated to see the Kuchma regime extend its lifespan during
the first ballot of the polls.
But the plan misfired. Yanukovych failed to defeat his contender,
the candidate of democratic forces, Yushchenko. Ukrainian democracy
was not defeated. On the contrary, the OSCE’s international observation
mission recorded falsifications in favour of the government’s candidate
at the voting, something that challenges Yanukovych’s qualification
for the second ballot with Yushchenko.
Clash of values
Who does Azerbaijan side with in this fight?
The Ukrainian elections can also be considered to be competition
between the USA and Europe on the one side and Russia on the other
for gaining influence in the region. Russia acted as a protector of
authoritarianism, while the USA and Europe acted as that of democracy.
Several days before the election, Moscow mounted an event in Kiev to
show support for Yanukovych under the pretext of celebrating the 60th
anniversary of the victory over fascism, while American and European
centres declared that they would reconsider relations with Kiev should
falsifications occur.
By the way, it was not out of sight that the “anniversary to support
Yanukovych”, which Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev also attended,
failed. Undoubtedly, it was predicted that at least Central Asian
dictators would also take part in the event, which was held under
the auspices of Russian President Putin, and Yanukovych would be
shown CIS-wide support. For the sake of this show, Russian sources
even spread misinformation that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev
would also take part. But time seems to be working seriously against
“international authoritarianism”. That is why even the Central Asian
dictators, who do not have any close relations with the USA and Europe,
were not encouraged to gather in Kiev under Putin’s auspices. Only
Belarusian leader “Batka” [Belarusian for “father”] Luka [Belarusian
President Alyaksandr Lukashenka] and the young leader of the Aliyev
clan moved to stand by Putin.
Shoulder-to-shoulder with dictators
How does Ilham Aliyev deal a blow to our national interests?
It is necessary to focus on this point especially because the fact that
Ilham Aliyev, either lacking skills or ability to curb his feelings,
explicitly shows his enmity towards democracy deals a serious blow
to Azerbaijan’s geopolitical standing.
Azerbaijan is now seen beside not the USA or Europe, but Russia. The
USA and Europe defend democracy, while Ilham Aliyev is standing next
to Russia, which supports dictatorship. It means that Azerbaijan sees
itself in the anti-USA-Europe flank. This, in turn, implies that
Azerbaijan does not want democratic processes to develop and those
representing democratic camp to come to power in the neighbouring
countries.
This position was felt during the rose revolution in Georgia. It
is going to be quite a substantial issue if the positions of the
USA, Europe and countries surrounding it towards Azerbaijan assume
a negative nature. And, more deplorable is that Armenia, which is
keeping our lands under occupation, will have an opportunity to make
use of this to strengthen its positions. It means that Azerbaijan’s
state interests will be threatened.
Imagine that the USA and Europe are imposing sanctions on Belarus,
while Aliyev is standing next to Belarus leader Lukashenka in the
Yanukovych support campaign. What will Aliyev do if Yushchenko
wins in Ukraine? Will he pursue chilly relations with that country
abiding by his own principles or will he present himself as a friend
of the Yushchenko administration being insincere, as was the case
with Georgia?