As we have already informed, the 6th Annual conference of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum held in Batumi was accompanied with an incident in participation of the Azerbaijani delegate. The Azerbaijani delegation member, Selim Babayev, tore the posters presented at the exhibition entitled “Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan”, one of which depicts father and son Aliyevs under the title – family business, the other one depicted the political prisoners in Azerbaijan. This incident was condemned by the delegates of other member countries attending the conference. Head of Azerbaijan Office of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly, Arzu Abdullayeva, in the conversation with Aravot.am, expressed her concern about this incident.
To our question of whether such incidents do not prove the allegations that there are serious problems in the human rights protection in Azerbaijan and whether they do not harm the country’s rating, she replied, “I regret that this person had applied for such a move, and I condemn this act. How could such a person appear in here?” In the conversation with us, Lasha Tugushi, Coordinator for Georgia’s National platform of Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum, told also condemned the behavior of Azeri counterpart and detailed, “I feel sorry for the Azeris and that such incidents are recorded. Our friendly country experiences a difficult situation; many of our friends are in difficult conditions. So is the Azerbaijani delegation. There are different ideas here, different approaches, and controversies, in general.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
