Entries Tagged 'Azerbaijan' ↓

03 May 2008 [10:14] - Today.Az
Day.Az interview with deputy Interior Minister of Azerbaijan Asker Alekperov.

-Now, let’s speak about the problems of elder persons. How can you respond to the announcements of the opposition about violation of the rights of freedom of assembly, especially in the election period?

-I do not think that conditions for conduction of meetings, state of freedom of speech and other liberties are on the level, the opposition speaks about. We have no problems here and all conditions have been created for citizens to conduct meetings. Yet, democracy has definite limits everywhere. Democracy does not imply that a person may conduct meetings wherever and however he wants. All these issues are regulated by the due legislation and it should be observed. If the action complies with the law, it will not be prohibited.

/Day.Az/

URL: http://www.today.az/news/society/44745.html

05 May 2008 [11:16] - Today.Az

Musavat, one of the leading opposition parties of Azerbaijan, intends to hold unsanctioned rallies.

The due announcement was made by head of the party Executive Board Arif Hajili at the Medjlis session.

According to him, the Musavat party does not intend to agree with the bans of the Baku city administration.

“Experience of previous elections shows that without holding unsanctioned rallies it is impossible to attain better conditions for mass actions. Therefore, we intend to hold unsanctioned actions”, said Hajili.

He was supported unanimously by the party Medjlis members.

/Day.Az/

03 May 2008 [14:37] - Today.Az

Head of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehtiyev regards Washington’s allocation of over $3 mln for implementation of programs for support to democratic presidential elections in Azerbaijan in October of this year as the US interference with the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. “The US would not allow interference of any country with internal processes, so why should it occur with Azerbaijan?”, he told reporters and added that “such step of the United States is incorrect”. It should be noted that earlier the US ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse announced that Washington has allocated over $3,000,000 for implementation of programs aimed to support efforts of the Azerbaijani authorities to hold free and democratic elections in October and noted that “support of democratic reforms in Azerbaijan is a US priority”. The said programs are aimed to ensure supremacy of laws, interests of civil society, development of independent press, respect and observance of human rights. According to Novosti-Azerbaijan, Ramiz Mehtiyev said that international organizations and separate countries try to put pressure on Azerbaijan. “However, despite it, Azerbaijan will hold transparent and democratic elections”, he said.

03 May 2008 [14:12] - Today.Az

Condoleezza Rice’s statement addressed to Azerbaijan is extremely unfounded.

According to it, the socio-political situation and other matters are alright in Armenia and Georgia, and Azerbaijan is the only backward state of the region,” said Ramiz Mehtiyev, Head of Azerbaijan’s Presidential Executive Office. He dismissed Rice’s remarks as illogical. “It can be deduced from Rice’s statement that March events in Armenia should be repeated in Azerbaijan so that she say good things about us. I view her words as an unfounded statement,” he added. /APA/

I’ve finally moved Freedom of the Press in Azerbaijan articles to this page. They will mostly be simple copies from Today.az     They were found at another blog I made - this page.

Being an expat, some things may be more painful for me than locals who often seem to have a resigned acceptance to the way things are in this country.  I haven’t met one local who is optimistic about democracy in this country.  People see the only solution as emigrating.  My hope is that this blog records a movement towards uninterrupted freedom of the press, which is a fundamental requirement for the establishing and maintenance of democracy.