He in particular said:

Our today’s meeting is not going to be a special one. I have simply invited representatives of leading mass media in connection with the election returns, ongoing processes, their coverage, reports and other issues. But for some reason, I could not invite others. I apologize for that.

As you know, yesterday I, as a press secretary, on behalf of the president’s press service, I made a statement on the crude distortion during the press conference of the international election observation mission. Warped at this press conference were the words by President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. So, he did not say “elections in Azerbaijan did not meet international standards.” He just said that elections in Azerbaijan did not meet “a number of OSCE commitments and Council of Europe standards”. These are absolutely different things. It was this gross distortion that made me yesterday to bring this to your notice.

Unfortunately, today the headline on the OSCE international website again was “Elections in Azerbaijan did not meet international standards.” Today we have got in touch with OSCE’s relevant representatives and observers. They have taken our claims very seriously, and have promised confidently that it would be corrected very soon. Abusing this fact, a number of opposition newspapers, opposition observers and so on referred to this OSCE statement in their today’s editions.

I want to note once again that the words were substantially warped by a translator, who made a crude mistake. There were no statements, neither in English nor in any other language, that elections in Azerbaijan did not meet international standards. These words were not used by any organ, international organization or official representative. I want to stress if you open any website covering the issue you cannot find something like that in official newspapers and bodies.

The second issue concerns preliminary reports, assessments, which also attempted to mislead the public opinion.

The preliminary reports on elections in Azerbaijan, statements by the International observation mission and others are quite normal documents. Now I am going to refer to some of them.

Everybody is aware of the numbers presented by PA Consulting Group. Compliance of exit-poll data and official returns of the elections in Azerbaijan is about 85%. If someone differently interprets this number, it is his own problem. A number of opposition representatives having made sure in their defeat resort to various manipulations with the known and clear numbers. The 80-85% compliance of the PA Consulting Group’s data and official returns of the elections in Azerbaijan is very important and normal indicator.

The report says that the observation mission positively assesses the voting in 87% of constituencies, in which they were monitoring. There is nothing to hide. It says in 13% - this is quite high number – the assessment was negative. But 87% is quite high and normal number?

In a plenty of polling stations, election districts, precinct and district commissions, all protocols were almost completely signed including by opposition members. Here is a few numbers. For instance, in Agstafa region, the protocols were signed by 26 out of 34 constituencies, and in Kazakh 36 out of 38 ones.

One of the key issues concerning the reports is that the opposition members, having completely made certain of their defeat, rest on the position of the US Department of State, and the USA as a whole. There are different related interpretations. The yesterday’s known statement by the Department of State - besides, the opposition claims on other issues, their press comes out with various headlines, that they say the United States allegedly recognizes the elections like this or like that. But let’s refer to a document. Documents sort things out.

You have the yesterday’s statement by official representative of the US Department of State Mr. Adam Erili. It is clear that today everybody uses internet, i.e. this is public information. What does he begin with? The United States believes that the November 6 parliamentary elections were an improvement over previous elections in some areas.

Back to the yesterday’s issue, that like the statement of the US Department of State said the elections in Azerbaijan did not meet a number of international standards. A number, not all of them. Everybody should be aware of this. The second sentence in the statement of the US Department of State is “The Government of Azerbaijan’s decision to allow large numbers of candidates to register and provide them with greater access to the media gave voters a real choice on election day. The statement further says Implementation of measures outlined in the May 11 and October 25 Presidential decrees, including allowing exit polls and extensive monitoring by domestic and foreign observers, improved voter lists, and finger inking all contributed to a more orderly and transparent vote.” This is exactly what the US Department of State’s statement reads.

Concerning the Azerbaijani-American relationship the statement says “We're going to continue to have relationship with Azerbaijan. There is a number of a wide range of issues that we need to deal with Azerbaijan on energy, security, counterterrorism, economic, political, regional, multilateral so that's going to move forward”. One of the key points is Mr. Ereli’s “there were and were major irregularities and allegations of fraud, okay. So this is not a wholesale indictment of the entire electoral process.” This is a document. The opposition representatives and printing media takes out its specific parts of the context and presents others i.e. they are trying to mislead the public opinion. This is, as they say, is one of the cheapest ways that people do not believe in. As you can see this was not outlined in the documents.

As you know, the delegation of the European Union yesterday held a meeting in the Foreign Ministry. The guest touched on the elections they had observed in different regions of Azerbaijan, and noting that in some constituencies slight irregularities took place, which had not an impact on the election returns, emphasized that as a whole the elections were normal.

The delegations, observers from Turkey, statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia and so on. I want to quote German deputy, former Prime Minister Werner Munch: “As an international observer I observed the last pre-election round, and the election process, visited almost 10 constituencies. It was the act prepared at a very high level. Azerbaijan took quite high- standard steps towards democracy”. There are a lot of such facts to list.

As you know, yesterday the Director of the International Strategic Studies Association met with Mr. President. He also praised the progressive steps taken in Azerbaijan towards democracy.

We repeat, we see the criticisms, as a whole, take into account all the censorious remarks. All these are facts. At the same time, to disseminate only criticisms based on crude distortion by using the method of crude translation and make all this public, to resort to such methods, only means that a number of opposition members and parties confess to their defeat in the elections.

Now I want to bring the last issue to your notice. As you are aware, yesterday President of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev noted in his interview to the Azerbaijan national television that every condition had been created for the elections to be held in absolutely transparent and democratic atmosphere, that the election returns fully reflect the will of the people. President Ilham Aliyev underlined at the same time that there were violations in a number of constituencies, which however can hardly, cannot spoil the whole picture. In this connection, we are going to take strong measures. The prosecutor’s office was also recommended to take strong related measures.

I would like to let you know that the Central Electoral Commission is about to complete preliminary documents concerning the irregularities. They will be submitted to the Republican prosecutor’s office in nearest future. In accordance with these documents, the prosecutor’s office is planning to launch serious investigations.

I also would like to note that progress is obvious in Azerbaijan in all fields – political, economic and social. As was repeatedly stated, Azerbaijan has become a leading country in the region. Azerbaijan is the world highest economic growth rate. This is the fact every citizen considering himself as Azeri should be proud of. The economic growth rate, the volume of direct foreign investments per capita, repeated minimum wage rise, salaries and stipend, all these are a result of substantial advancement. Those who deny this progress are people who are in the path of betray to their homeland and people. The citizens of Azerbaijan are well aware of this. So, they have clearly expressed their will in the elections.

You should take into account that if to look again at the course of Azerbaijan’s development over the last period, you can see that the great progress in all fields is obvious. Substantial progress has been reached in Azerbaijan over the short period of time in the filed of democracy, every conditions had been created for the elections that is recognized by the whole international community.

Azerbaijan’s prestige of in the international arena is also enhanced. Azerbaijan established normal relationship with neighbors, the country is taking intensive steps towards integration to the euroatlantic structures, implementing global energy projects.

Having turned into a leading country in the region, Azerbaijan at the same time has become a country taking active part in the processes taking place in the international arena as a whole, in the European security architecture, the whole world’s, and having impact on these processes. That is why I repeat that that our people who realize it very well, have expressed their will. All above-listed interpretations and irregularities cannot hinder these processes.

Afterwards, press secretary Azer Gasymov answered questions from journalists.