NKR MFA: EACH AZERI ELECTION RESEMBLES A SHOW

PanARMENIAN.Net
03.10.2008 15:59 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Every time elections in Azerbaijan resemble a
performance, NKR Foreign Minister’s Advisor Ara Puluzyan said when
commentting on the current situation in Azerbaijan.

"In addition, everything looks extremely false, as the most important
factor – democratic process, without which fair elections are
impossible – misses. Even Saddam Hussein, before the U.S. attacking
Iran, organized "elections" in his country and as a result polled
90 per cent of votes. However, that did not help him. Azerbaijan is
also doomed to defeat in this sense: it successively moves to the
dictatorship," he said.

It is dangerous to see only what is happening on the stage titled
"Presidential elections in Azerbaijan". It is more important to
examine what is going on behind the scenes, according to him.

"Pluralism of opinions does not exist in Azerbaijan and the main
oppositional parties’ refusal to participate in the elections is a
striking illustration of this. What condition the poor opposition has
been driven to that it boycotts the elections from the very beginning,
without entering into a struggle?! This means that it is completely
deprived of any opportunity to express its own opinion and that it
does not want to be satisfied only with an episodic role in this
performance.

Being a person, dealing with the problems of Iran, where presidential
elections are also going to be held in summer, I would like to mention
that the situation in this country is incomparably better. Here
we can see struggle of opinions, there are no persons beyond the
criticism, there are mechanisms, the use of which averts the coming
of dictatorship. Unfortunately, similar mechanisms do not exist
in Azerbaijan.

Unfortunately, some European structures, which neglect the
anti-democratic processes in Azerbaijan, and do not show similar
attitude to the analogous problems in Azerbaijan and, for example,
in Iran, Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh, obviously connive at the
aggravation of the situation. The use of double standards, Euro
structures’ flirting with the Azeri authorities, the recognition of
the election results in any state of affairs, do not stimulate the
development of the civil society in this country. By the way, in the
NKR, in spite of its non-recognition by the international community,
the elections are held more transparently and democratically, which
is testified, at least, by the parties’ active participation. An
alternative and an opportunity of a choice exist in our republic,
unlike our "recognized" neighbors.

Democratic institutions should function in a normal country. And
democracy is not merely elections; it is a complex and multilateral
process, which is achieved only by successive and purposeful
steps. Against the background of a complete absence of any signs
of democracy, a "game" of elections looks unconvincing, absurd and
dangerous for the Azeri nation as well," Ara Puluzyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress