PACE PRESIDENT: "WE BELIEVE THAT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS IN AZERBAIJAN WILL BE MORE DEMOCRATIC AND TRANSPARENT THAN PREVIOUS ONES"
APA
April 14 2010
Azerbaijan
Baku. Elnur Mammadli – APA. President of the Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) Mevlut Cavusoglu, who is visiting
Azerbaijan, has today held a briefing on the outcomes of his visit,
APA reports.
Mevlut Cavusoglu said the aim of his visit was to hold discussions
on the process of democratization in the country and the activities
carried out with regard to Azerbaijan’s commitments vis-a-vis the
Council of Europe. He said the Council of Europe would assist the
process of democratization, try to help Azerbaijan integrate into
the European standards like other member states.
"Next year we will mark the 10th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s
membership of the Council of Europe. But for us the best present
that Azerbaijan can give on the occasion of the 10th anniversary is
to hold democratic and transparent elections in autumn. This will
be the biggest victory for us. The officials that we met also said
the elections will be democratic. I met with President Ilham Aliyev,
speaker of the parliament, foreign minister, representatives of the
political parties. We also delivered to President the proposals of
the opposition parties concerning the forthcoming elections, laws,"
he said.
Cavusoglu expressed his confidence that the parliamentary elections
would be held democratically: "It’s because of atmosphere of the
meetings I’ve held here. But it will depend on the steps to be
taken henceforth. We think these elections will be more democratic
and transparent than previous ones. We want to believe it and we
believe it. We had open discussions over all issues. We saw that
the Government of Azerbaijan was committed to the implementation of
commitments taken to the Council of Europe. There were productive
discussions on important steps that Azerbaijan will take towards the
fulfillment of commitments during my presidency".
Cavusoglu stated that the Nagorno Karabakh conflict was also in the
focus of attention during the visit and added that the Council of
Europe has open and exact position on this issue: "As the Council of
Europe, we have moved forward to establish the Sub-Committee at the
Parliamentary Assembly in order to contribute to this peace process.
We will establish this committee soon and I will head this committee".
Cavusoglu also stated that he would visit Ganja as well.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
