Paper condemns Azeri officials for failure to attend NATO forum in Georgia

Zerkalo, Baku
5 May 05

The Azerbaijani independent newspaper Zerkalo has expressed its regret
that the country’s officials ignore some international events while
Armenians are demonstrating more activity. As an example, the
newspaper cited a recent NATO conference in Georgia, which Azerbaijani
officials failed to attend. Failure to attend such events is seen as
the weakness of the Azerbaijani propaganda machinery, Zerkalo
said. The newspaper also interviewed political experts and campaigners
who said that Azerbaijan should be represented in a broader format at
international meetings. The following is the text of C. Bayramova’s
report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo on 5 May headlined “Is
flag-waving on the rise?” and subheaded “We are losing the
‘information war’ again”; subheadings have been inserted editorially:

Propaganda mechanism still “on the skids”

You should agree that we have started boasting too often about our
success in the field of propaganda. Of course, there is a grain of
truth here. If the Azerbaijani propaganda machinery looked like a
Zaporozhets [small budget car] compared to a Rolls-Royce car before,
there is no sharp difference now. Nevertheless, our propaganda
mechanism is still “on the skids” unlike the well-established
propaganda machinery of our unkind neighbours.

It is surprising why the Azerbaijani side wishes to put itself in the
situation of an offended party and is not trying to notice elementary
things of which the Armenians are unfortunately making use. Are there
examples? Yes. We do not turn up at general events held in Armenia and
organized by international structures. The only exception is that some
Azerbaijani NGOs attend them and then have a cold welcome at home and
are included on the list of “traitors”. Then the ears and eyes of the
Azerbaijani population are shut without ceremony by cutting off the
Armenian president’s televised speech, as if it was unacceptable and
in general, humiliating for us to watch and listen to the enemy.

Azeri officials ignore NATO conference

In any case, only our readers can judge how correct it is. We bring to
your attention only a recent event that substantiates the aforesaid. A
big authoritative international conference concerning NATO’s role in
the Black Sea and Caspian region was held in Tbilisi between 25 and 28
April. The conference discussed the integration of former socialist
countries into Euro-Atlantic structures, and actively debated NATO’s
military budget and civil oversight of the army.

The event was attended by a great number of people from the NATO
secretariat and representative offices. It was attended by Georgian
Speaker Nino Burjanadze and the Georgian foreign and defence
ministers. Delegations from many countries of the world arrived in the
Georgian capital. Countries of Eastern Europe, which have already
joined NATO, for example Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary, were very
well-represented. Among CIS countries, the conference was attended by
representative delegations from Moldova, Ukraine and
Armenia. Incidentally, Armenia’s presence is especially notable since
Armenia, although it has not yet expressed its opinion on accession to
NATO, received an invitation (both officials and NGOs) and was
represented by a broad delegation at the conference. There were eight
Armenians there, including MPs, representatives of the presidential
administration and of various NGOs.

The Azerbaijani delegation was represented only by two delegates –
Arif Yunus, head of the Conflicts Department of the Institute for
Peace and Democracy, and another NGO representative, although
invitations to this event had been sent to the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry and Milli Maclis [parliament]. As a result, the Azerbaijani
delegation turned out to be the smallest one at this authoritative
event.

Poor excuse

We tried to contact the press service of the Azerbaijani Foreign
Ministry and to our surprise, they said that they had decided not to
send their employees to the conference because the event was not so
important both by its scale and nature. You should agree that the
Foreign Ministry’s “excuse” does not really sound very well-founded.

Arif Yunus, who took part in the event, told Zerkalo that except for
Azerbaijan, all the other states were represented by their ministers
or deputy ministers. “I was almost the only person from Baku, if we do
not count the representative of a half Azerbaijani and half
international NGO. When I asked the NATO leaders that were there how
they could explain the absence of Azerbaijani officials, they gave a
short and clear answer: We invited them, first they accepted it, but
then refused to turn up, Azerbaijan probably has more important things
to do than NATO.”

Yunus maintains that NATO representatives often say that Azerbaijan’s
position is not understandable against the background of the
Armenians’ activity.

In turn, political expert Rasim Musabayov expressed his astonishment
and regret that the Azerbaijani delegation had failed to attend the
event. He pointed out that although he is unaware of the reason for
such “negligence”, Azerbaijani representatives should definitely have
attended it at the official level: “It is surprising that when events
organized by international structures are held far away from
Azerbaijan, somewhere in Brussels or Strasbourg, a large delegation
immediately goes there from Azerbaijan and there is enough funding for
that. It is to be regretted that our state ignored the Tbilisi
conference where, to all appearance, discussions touched on regional
problems of the South Caucasus. On the contrary, it seems to me that
our delegation should have been represented there in a broader
format.”

For our part, we should add that the country’s image is formed exactly
at these events. Disregard for such meetings is perceived as nothing
other than the weakness of the Azerbaijani propaganda
machinery. Because even the well-known American expert, Paul Goble,
once said that Azerbaijan is losing the propaganda war to Armenia, as
a result of which the Armenian position on the Nagornyy Karabakh issue
is dominant in the USA. As for the NATO conference, it would be
relevant to quote a statement by the NATO leadership itself: “NATO is
not just a military structure, it is a mechanism of implementing the
process of democratization.”

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress