According to the results of the presidential elections held in Azerbaijan, as it was expected, Azerbaijani incumbent President Ilham Aliyev won the majority of votes.
To remind that a few months ago amendments in the Constitution of Azerbaijan took place by eliminating the restriction to be appointed in the position of presidential chair providing the opportunity for Ilham Aliyev to preside lifelong. CIS and PACE observers assessed the elections of Ilham Aliyev having 85 percent of votes positive. But OSCE\ODIHR observers expressed exactly the opposite opinion.
In the interview with Aravot.am, referring to contradicting to each other assessments of the observer missions, Ruben Mehrabyan, political scientist, expert of “Center for Political and International Studies”, said that the explanations to those contradictions were provided by the representatives of OSCE\ODIHR Mission in their press conferences, noting that the missions of the European Parliament and Council of Europe observers were short-term and not many in number. But, OSCE\ODIHR had conducted about six-months observation mission in Azerbaijan, which resulted in presenting comprehensive consequences.
The political scientist is drawing the attention to the fact that the EU leadership, particularly the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Füle accepted OSCE/ODIHR conclusions as a basis.
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We inquired whether this means that there will be political pressures on Azerbaijan, or there will be some restrictions placed on the country, Ruben Mehrabyan said that at this point, it’s hard to talk about the pressures or restrictions, but to the point that there will be a negative attitude towards Azerbaijan, it is definite. “There will be approximately the same attitude as towards Russia.”
Recently, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan speaking of the upcoming elections in Azerbaijan, said that it would be good for us if Aliyev is elected. Aliyev was elected, Serzh Sargsyan’s desire is fulfilled, what good it will bring to us, to this observation of Aravot.am, the political scientist said that it would be better if you refer the question directly to Serzh Sargsyan. “I am convinced that it generates from the interest of Armenia, that the neighbors of Armenia be democratic states. Particularly with regard to Azerbaijan, yes, the democratic Azerbaijan is more advantageous to Armenia, at least because when negotiating on Karabakh conflict with democratically elected authorities and on democratic rails it would be far more effective than with a similar regime, which, just to legitimize its existence, maintains hatred towards the opposite side. In fact, this conflict is the main source of its legitimacy. But this, of course, is a theory, and eventually as to how the leader of Azerbaijan will be or will not be, it is the headache of Azerbaijani people, and its political forces,” said our interlocutor adding that our task is to solve our problems.
To the question whether Armenia may have a playing card in its hand at the non-democratic elections in Azerbaijan, the political scientist said, “I think it should have, but it just can’t do it, because Armenia’s authorities do not particularly shine much in democracy. Although, the situations in Armenia and Azerbaijan are not comparable in their practices, but as a base, I think, we are dealing with the same post-Soviet, semi-rotten, criminal-oligarchic system. Simply, Armenia does not have that much raw materials, so much easy money, and it just makes the authorities of Armenia accommodate with the citizens of Armenia.”
Overall, according to Mehrabyan, the situation in Azerbaijan is typical to the post-Soviet territory. “If during the Soviet Union there is a unified state, in which Azerbaijan was singled out with more ugly manifestations: adulation, management with compromising, total bribery, now there is no Soviet Union, there is putinizm. Azerbaijan, nowadays, also displays putinizm with its maximum ugly manifestations.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
