Washington, July 18 (AZƏRTAC). The U.S. Commission on the Organization of Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE), otherwise known as the ‘U.S. Helsinki Commission’, which deals with monitoring the enforcement of documents and provisions of OSCE and the Helsinki Final Act, has held a briefing on Azerbaijan.

The event was moderated by the members of the secretariat of the commission, Dr Paul Carter, the Senior State Advisor and Ms Shelly Han, Policy Advisor. The official position of Azerbaijan was represented by Elin Suleymanov, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States and Samad Seyidov, the Head of the Azerbaijan-U.S. Friendship Group and the Chairman of the Committee on International and Interparliamentary Relations of the Parliament, who is an official visit in Washington along with a delegation of Azerbaijani MPs to hold bilateral meetings with U.S. officials.

Apart from the written testimony, submitted by him to U.S. Helsinki Commission, Elin Suleymanov gave the audience a broad overview about the activities of the Azerbaijani government under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev pertaining to the democratic state-building, encouragement in building a free society and protection of human rights and subsequently achieved results.

The Ambassador stated that the Azerbaijani government will make sure that the presidential elections set for October will be in line with free and democratic process. He underscored the fact that the future of Azerbaijan will be decided not in other capitals or countries, but by the citizens of Azerbaijan. Suleymanov reiterated that any candidate who is eligible to become a candidate is free to follow a due process of registration and participation in the elections. The Ambassador refuted the allegations related to human rights issues, voiced against Azerbaijan basing his arguments on specific facts. He gave an insight into an independent justice system of Azerbaijan, telling the audience about registration of close to 5 thousand mass media organizations, freedom of expression of Azerbaijani citizens via internet, the fact of existence of a dynamic civil society and the attention of the government to development of human capital of the country. Suleymanov spoke of the tireless efforts of the government agencies against corruption in Azerbaijan and as an example, cited the achievements of the newly founded “ASAN” service facilitating various quick state-provided services. He provided facts on the reforms and the attained success within the last decade, stating that the poverty levels decreased substantially from 49 percent a decade ago to just 6 percent. The Ambassador remarked about the high level of U.S.-Azerbaijani bilateral relations and underscored that the participation of the Azerbaijan’s ambassador at U.S. Helsinki Commission is an obvious sign of the importance given to this relationship. He reiterated that Azerbaijan remains as one of the only truly independent states within its immediate geography.

During his speech, the Ambassador touched upon the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan and existence of one million refugees, who were involuntarily driven out and are not allowed to return to their homes as a result. He stated that the situation with refugees is recognized by the people of Azerbaijan as an unacceptable human rights violation and the existence of the very fact connotes the unserious nature of the allegations related to human rights violations voiced at the event.

Having touched upon the human rights violations, the Ambassador told the audience about the recent abuses and threats against the Moldovan Ombudsman Aurelia Grigoriou in Yerevan, who had earlier voiced her position on the Armenian policy of occupation and aggression against Azerbaijan in the Armenian Parliament, stating that this fact by itself is a gross violation of Helsinki Final Act principles. Concluding his remarks, Elin Suleymanov called the United States government to appoint the U.S. mediator to OSCE Minsk Group and its more active participation in the conflict resolution efforts. The Ambassador also brought to the attention of the U.S. Helsinki Commission that the organization has not yet held an event on Armenia although serious violations had been recorded during the latest presidential elections in Armenia

In his speech, Samad Seyidov spoke of the growing regional and global significance and recognition of Azerbaijan, strategic partnership between the United States and Azerbaijan, the trust built between the two countries, as well as about Azerbaijan conducting independent foreign policy despite the serious external pressures. The member of the parliament reinforced the points made by the ambassador about the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia. He stated that as a member to the Council of Europe, the importance of Azerbaijan’s cooperation with CoE in discussing various subjects, and specifically the issues pertaining to protection of human rights, should be underscored. Seyidov noted that Azerbaijan will assume the chairmanship of the Council of Europe`s Committee of Ministers starting from May 2014. The MP also highlighted the fact that, as an undersigned party to the European Convention on Human Rights, Azerbaijani citizens have a full right to appeal to this court and the Azerbaijani government complies with enforcement of all of its adopted resolutions. Having said that, Samad Seyidov told the audience that as an indicator of the stance of Azerbaijan vis-a-vis protection of human rights, the number of appeals to the court is much less than those from many European countries. In addition, he noted that the overall number of prisoners in Azerbaijani jails is also less than in European countries. During his speech, the legislator also spoke of the achievements of the government in realization of political reforms, and noted that the political will of the Azerbaijani government to solve the remaining problems is also apparent. In his testimony, the Deputy Assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State Thomas Melia recognized Azerbaijan as a friendly state and told the audience about growing bilateral relations in many spheres of mutual interest. He stated that the U.S. government continues its dialog with the government of Azerbaijan about democratic processes and issues related to human rights, and expressed hope for free and democratic presidential elections in October of this year.

Following the testimonies and speeches, the panelists answered questions of the audience. As part of the delegation of U.S.-Azerbaijani Friendship Group, MPs Asim Mollazade and Sevinj Fataliyeva also participated in the briefing.

Contrary to the incorrect information disseminated by some media organizations, the event which the U.S. Helsinki Commission held on Azerbaijan was not “hearings”, but a “briefing”. According to the existing regulations, briefings are of informal nature and in this format the event is certainly not moderated by the chairman or co-chairman of the commission, but by the members of the secretariat of the commission. This is why, none of the commission members were present at the event on Azerbaijan.