A PERFORMANCE TITLED `PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS IN AZERBAIJAN’

Azat Artsakh Daily
03 Oct 08
Republic of Nagorno Karabakh [NKR]

NKR Foreign Minister’s Advisor Ara Puluzyan’s comment on the
pre-election situation in Azerbaijan `Every time elections in
Azerbaijan resemble a performance. In addition, everything looks
extremely false, as the basic thing – democratic process, without which
fair elections are impossible – misses. Even Saddam Hussein, before the
USA attacking Iran, organized `elections’ in his country and as a
result polled 90% of votes. However, that did not help him. Azerbaijan
is also doomed to defeat in this sense: it successively moves to the
dictatorship. It is dangerous to see only what is happening on the
stage titled `Presidential elections in Azerbaijan’. It is rather
important to examine what is going on behind the scenes. 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 th
e 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 do not want to notice 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. Agai
nst 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’.