Baku, September 3, AZERTAC

Do those who speak of the rule of law have any international obligation, said Deputy Head of the Administration of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Chief of the administration's foreign relations department Novruz Mammadov as he was interviewed by AZERTAC.

- Mr. Mammadov, British minister for Europe David Lidington said he was very concerned about the results of Khadija Ismayilova`s court verdict and made a couple of challenges to Azerbaijan. What is your position in this regard?

-Yes, the British Minister has made such a statement. Firstly I want to say that this is not the first position of David Lidington towards Azerbaijan. Despite he is Minister for Europe, each time he is looking for an opportunity to give a biased statement on Azerbaijan, and has done it many times. Although he is the Minister for European Affairs, it seems that processes in Azerbaijan for some reason are the most interesting issues for Mr. Lidington. He wants to be the first one in this area. Therefore, he decided to outstrip the other officials of European Union, and he has succeeded.

In his statement, Mr. Lidington urges Azerbaijan to follow the rule of law. But David Lidington himself prefers to remain silent on the international rights and obligations. So, he may be asked, do those who speak of the rule of law have any international commitment?

Why does he make subjective statements, reports on behalf of the United Kingdom in any opportunity, but over these years never have remembered international law to report his position on Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and problems of refugees. Mr. Lidington is the Minister for Europe and it would be better if he stated his position on the ongoing developments in Europe. If he made a statement on Julian Assange in terms of human rights, having deprived of all his rights for more than three years, founding asylum in the condition of detention, he would really show that he had no biased position.

The processes in Azerbaijan are carried out in accordance with the laws of Azerbaijan, as well as international law. The person, abour whom David Lidington made a statement, has been prosecuted for a criminal offense.

It would be better, if Mr. Lidington reported on the development in Europe regarding media. Studies show that violations of rights of media representatives are much more in Europe than in other countries. So during just 8 months of 2015, 931 cases against journalists were registered in EU member states and in candidate countries, including 23 in Britain, 55 in France, 61 in Germany, 28 in Spain, 6 in Portugal, 7 in Austria, 73 in Italy and the rest came from other countries. As for the substance of the cases, 7 of them were death cases,126 physical punishment, 80 arrested, 181 were related to the censorship. Did Mr. Lidington give any statement regarding these issues?

Responsibility of creation of recent migration processes, reaching the level of current crisis, death of a large number of migrants lies with the EU. It would be better if Mr. Lidington and other responsible officials dealt with this issue.

Unfortunately, the EU representatives, as well as David Lidington who consider themselves heralds of freedom of media, have never said any word about these events.

All of these are nothing but a manifestation of biased and insidious intentions against Azerbaijan.

I would like to mention that Azerbaijan is an independent state with its domestic and foreign policy, no one has the right to interfere in its internal affairs by making biased statements.