On October 13 the regular meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council took place, during which the Director of the OSCE ODIHR Michael Georg Link reported on the activities of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
The Head of the Permanent Delegation of Armenia, Ambassador Arman Kirakossian drew the attention of the participants of the meeting to the publications in the Azerbaijani media on the visit of the Director of the ODIHR to Baku this week and meetings held during the visit. In particular, Ambassador Kirakossian underlined that statements and assessments are attributed to M.Link, which qualify Azerbaijan as an excellent sample of interfaith relations. The Head of the Delegation of Armenia expressed regret that despite warnings of the Armenian side yet another representative of international organizations with high reputation fell in the trap of the Azerbaijani propagandistic machinery and was misused by the Azerbaijani authorities.
The Head of the Armenian Delegation stressed that praising of non-existent good practices in Azerbaijan undermines reputation of the OSCE ODIHR as an institution, which is aimed at promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms. In this context Arman Kirakossian emphasized that the policy of promoting hate crimes and intolerance pursued at the highest level in Azerbaijan deserves only condemnation.
