“All three countries of the South Caucasus have a common baggage of history, I am talking about the last few decades,” said Executive Director of LINKS, Dennis Sammut, during the 89th “Rose Roth” seminar on June 20. He noted that whatever occurs in one of the countries, the other countries are thoroughly examining it, for instance, the incident occurred in Georgia. He noted that when the media illustrated in their coverage how the Georgian ministers were displaying their support, people in Azerbaijan were discussing whether their ministers would do the same or not. “There is a huge gap in the political processes. A gap that has not been completely filled in and this gap is the weakness of political parties and from the perspective of the development of political parties, this process has not been completed,” he said.
Dennis Sammut said that the South Caucasus is so far subjected to external influences, and the existing conflicts are the reflection of the political processes too. He mentioned the fact that the delegation presenting Azerbaijani does not take part in the seminar, according to him, it is sad. He singled out a process in Azerbaijan that has begun in the fall of 2013 when Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Baku. He reminded that a few days after the visit, Ilham Aliyev was re-elected as President, and at that time, the international observers were acting with criticisms. “Afterwards, we witnessed a new pressure over the civil society and the media.”
Dennis Sammut mentioned that the main target of the pressures in Azerbaijan is the human rights activists. “These pressures reflected on the civil society and many of them left Azerbaijan. Many of them are living in fear, and I would like to say that it is sad.” Dennis Sammut believes that we are reaching a point wherefrom there can be no problem: despite the fear, many people are putting this policy into question. He noted that Azerbaijan brought itself into this situation. However, according to him, a new cycle begins for Azerbaijan in the form of parliamentary elections. He thinks that it is a good opportunity for Azerbaijan to show that it is changing its political direction. However, Dennis Sammut is not so optimistic. “I’d like to mention about Azerbaijan that despite all of this, we should estimate by praising words that there is a room for the opposition in this country, although very limited. We need to reasonably criticize Azerbaijan, the emotional criticism will not help anyone.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
