“Azərbaycan” newspaper has published V.Alibayli`s article headlined “The Washington Post and The Guardian violate ‘armistice’ between Azerbaijan and the USA and West”. AZERTAC presents the article.

X X X

The facts show that The Washington Post and The Guardian are indeed violating “an armistice” between Azerbaijan and the United States and West. After the visit to Azerbaijan by Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the U.S. Department of State Amos Hochstein on 11 July 2015, it seemed like Washington wants to remove coldness in its relationship with Baku by extending a hand of peace. What gave real grounds for optimism was Mr Hochstein`s statements that the USA will support Azerbaijan. This optimism was boosted when Chief of General Staff of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces, Colonel General Najmaddin Sadikov had a meeting with the US Military Attache to Azerbaijan on July 14 and the Ministry of Defence expressed its readiness to continue cooperation with the Pentagon and NATO.

The media then emphasized that Mr Hochstein`s refraining from "on our dictate and terms" traditional rhetoric of U.S. representatives should be understood as a sure sign that America accepts the principle of equal rights in its relationship with Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani President`s Aide for Public and Political Affairs Ali Hasanov earlier said that bilateral relations cannot develop based on somebody`s desire to realize their dominance claims, but only based on shared interests, principles of equal cooperation and non-interference in each other`s internal affairs. “The sooner those who want to see Azerbaijan as a satellite state or an outpost quit their ideas, the better friends they can be with Azerbaijan.” So if the United States and Western circles acknowledge this reality and respects the sovereign and national rights of Azerbaijan, the day when one can talk about the restoration and development of partnership is in the not too distant future. With all this in mind, Azerbaijan has demonstrated its readiness to ignore a long-lasting double standard policy conducted by some Western circles with regard to Azerbaijan and even smear campaigns run from the office of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and from London during the first European Games.

The same happened after President of the European Council Donald Tusk`s visit to Azerbaijan on 21 July. Having set no terms, official Baku expressed its interest in developing equal bilateral cooperation with the European Union. In this instance too, Baku believed that a smear campaign against Azerbaijan conducted recently by international NGOs and media under the guidance of some circles in the United Kingdom and Germany must not impede the development of relations.

It should be emphasized that in both cases the opposite side voiced its readiness to end “superior-inferior” rhetoric and stop targeting Western civil society institutions at Azerbaijan. But as usual “political interests” were preferable to a gentlemen's agreement. From 6-12 August, The Washington Post, one of the mouthpieces of official Washington, published six anti-Azerbaijani articles. Full of unethical allegations from superficial criticism of the governance system in Azerbaijan to defamation of the congressmen who visited Baku, this material definitely marks another wave of the anti-Azerbaijani campaign. Moreover, the media close to The Washington Post is seizing any opportunity to discredit Azerbaijan to the maximum extent possible. The USA-British “joint” NGOs and media are gradually intensifying their “muscle show”.

So it`s time to refresh memory of the lovers of the anti-Azerbaijani campaigns by reminding them of some shameful events that have taken place in the USA and United Kingdom. The Western media themselves write that the election of Barack Obama intensified U.S. special forces` search for “enemies within”. Hundreds of people, who joined Occupy Wall Street protest movement against social and economic inequality, were arrested in New York City in 2011. Journalists covering the protests in Los-Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle and other cities were also arrested, facing police brutality. Three UN reports underlined growing racial discrimination within law enforcement bodies in the U.S. The media are also frequently reporting of U.S. police violence against blacks and Latin Americans.

An incident that happened on Staten Island, New York City, on 17 July 2014 provides a convincing evidence of the aforementioned. On that day police officer Daniel Pantaleo killed Eric Garner, a 43 year old father of six. And the grand jury`s refusing to indict the policeman provoked a wave of protests that were brutally dispersed. Another proof that violation of human rights has become a common occurrence in the USA is the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an 18 year old black man, by police officer Darren Wilson on August 9, 2014, in Ferguson, Missouri. The grand jury again decided not to indict the police officer, provoking weeks-long protests and nationwide unrest. Hundreds of people involved in the protests were detained and subjected to police brutality and torture.

Journalists covering Ferguson unrest were also tortured by police. The Washington Post and The Huffington Post reporters were detained by police without any reason and taken to the Ferguson police station. An Al-Jazeera reporter saw tear gas in front of him thrown by police when he was trying to go live on air.

The killing by the Baltimore police of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old African American in the State of Maryland on 19 April 2015, caused another wave of nationwide protests, resulting in the government`s imposing a curfew and deploying the Maryland National Guard to the city. A total of 210 people were detained, and many others were subjected to police brutalily and torture.

A total of 458 people were shot dead by police in the United States in 2014, spurring serious protest and criticism not only within the country itself, but all over the world. On June 17 2015, Dylann Roof, a 21 year old white man, shoot dead nine black people, including three men and six women, at a church in Charleston.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Dr. Christian Christensen, a professor at Stockholm University, said police violence, racial discrimination has become widespread in the USA. “This has continued for decades. What we saw in Ferguson and Baltimore and nationwide protests is not people`s response just to the murder of two black men, it is a response to police violence, torture, racial discrimination that has continue for decades.”

Reports analyzing the USA`s human rights record are telling the whole truth about it. UN Human Rights Committee accused the United States of breaching several provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Headed by Nigel Rodley, a British professor, the committee accused Washington of implementing an illegal control over social networks, describing it as direct interference in people`s private lives. The UN committee`s report revealed that the USA is controlling people`s activity in social networks not only in its own area, but also in different regions of the world to instill their ideology on people, exert pressure on and encourage them to violation of law. This spoils and puts at risk private lives of thousands of people. Countries and societies suffer hardships as a result of color revolutions. All these events are resulting in mass death, with countries torn by internal clashes. Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and Libya are best examples.

It should be noted that The Guardian distinguished itself among British media that targeted Azerbaijan during the first European games. In May-June of this year, The Guardian published a total of 40 critical articles about Azerbaijan, with 23 of them published in four days, almost making it to The Guinness Book of Records for its “campaigning”. In fact, even most notorious racket newspapers in Azerbaijan can envy this “extraordinary capability”. In the United Kingdom, The Guardian is known as an uncontrollable newspaper. However, after Wikileaks publications, and especially after interfering with the private life of the Queen the newspaper was subdued in a short space of time. News of the World newspaper, which attempted to oppose the pressure, was closed with its managers arrested. In addition, the Royal Charter established a government control over the activity of the media in the United Kingdom, with powers to impose fines of up to £1m on newspapers like The Guardian for wrongdoing. There can hardly be a better way of silencing and controlling the media.

The fact that The Guardian and similar newspapers are controlled by the government makes it reasonable to search for official traces behind recent intensification of the British newspapers` activity against Azerbaijan. Similarly, organizations like the Amnesty International and Transparency International are flashes of the London-run anti-Azerbaijani demarche. Apparently the Azerbaijani media too should increase local society`s awareness of violation of human rights and media freedom, and cases of corruption, power abuse, etc. that are taking place in the United Kingdom.

For example, Baron John Sewel, Deputy Speaker of the Lords, was forced to quit after a shameful scandal this July. In the material published by The Sun, the 69 year-old Deputy Speaker of the Lords was shown as snorting coke with hookers at a sordid sex party at his own apartment. In a 45 minute footage in a frenzy of excitement he then wore a call girl's bra and leather jacket and sucked on a cigarette as the women stroked his back and hair. He even invited them to have dinner with him at the House of Lords in the Peers Dining Room ahead of another arranged orgy on September 8. Sewel talked about his sexual affairs with 13 women and even a member of the Labour Party. Most interestingly, Lords Speaker Baroness D'Souza said that as a member of the Lords, Sewel is involved in legislating on sexual offences acts, prostitution and brothel-keeping laws.

Here comes a brief reminder. Some Western circles, NGOs and media are trying to generalize – to the maximum extent possible – what is happening in separate countries. Then in the light of John Sewel`s adventures, one can say that in the United Kingdom, anti-corruption laws are made by corrupt people, laws on the rights of children are made by pedophiles, and criminal laws are made by criminals.

David Whyte`s “How corrupt is Britain?” book, published in March 2015, tells the whole truth about what is happening in the United Kingdom. The book highlights growing manipulations with pension funds, mortgage and insurance fraud, forgery, insider trading in the United Kingdom. Whyte rightly asks: “Would there still be commercial banking sector in this country if it weren't for corruption? Think of the list of scandals: pensions misselling, endowment mortgage fraud, the payment protection insurance scam, Libor rigging, insider trading and all the rest. Then ask yourself whether fleecing the public is an aberration – or the business model.” “No senior figure has been held criminally liable or has even been disqualified for the practices that helped to trigger the financial crisis, partly because the laws that should have restrained them were slashed by successive governments. A former minister in this government ran HSBC while it engaged in systematic tax evasion, money laundering for drugs gangs and the provision of services to Saudi and Bangladeshi banks linked to the financing of terrorists. Instead of prosecuting the bank, the head of the UK's tax office went to work for it when he retired. The City of London, operating with the help of British overseas territories and crown dependencies, is the world's leading tax haven, controlling 24% of all offshore financial services. It offers global capital an elaborate secrecy regime, assisting not just tax evaders but also smugglers, sanctions- busters and money-launderers. As the French investigating magistrate Eva Joly has complained, the City "has never transmitted even the smallest piece of usable evidence to a foreign magistrate". They are also listed by the Tax Justice Network as among the worst secrecy regimes and tax havens. For some reason, though, that doesn't count.”

Whyte says: “The Private Finance Initiative has been used by our governments to deceive us about the extent of their borrowing while channeling public money into the hands of corporations. Shrouded in secrecy, stuffed with hidden sweeteners, it has landed hospitals and schools with unpayable debts, while hiding public services from public scrutiny.” “State spies have been engaged in mass surveillance. Police forces have protected prolific pedophiles, including Jimmy Savile, and – it is now alleged – a ring of senior politicians who are also suspected of the murder of children.”

All this is only a small part of evidence of human rights violation, corruption, police violence and other crimes happening in the USA and United Kingdom. The topic can be continued, and it will be, if needed. Here a question arises: why did Amos Hochstein and Donald Tusk come to Azerbaijan?

V.ALIBAYLI