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Azerbaijan must embrace the democratic process
October 26, 2005 10:09 PM
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The European Parliament
By Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP in The European Parliament
Sarah Ludford, on behalf of the ALDE Group. - Mr President, the third parliamentary elections since independence are taking place against a background that is deeply discouraging in this autocratic and corrupt system. Violence and harassment are being meted out to opposition supporters, journalists and human rights activists. Prominent opposition leader Rasul Guliyev was allowed to register as a candidate, but the authorities then refused to let him return to Baku and had him arrested in Ukraine. I recently helped to free a member of his family. A British citizen and a constituent of mine, she was detained in Baku when customs officials claimed to 'discover' a gun - clearly planted - in her luggage. She suffered chronic ill health as a result of being detained and is now recovering.
There has been a temptation for the West - Europe and the United States - to stress continuity and so-called stability. They have an eye on the oil, the new Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline having been opened last May by BP Chairman Lord Browne.
Foreign criticism of the 2003 presidential elections and 2004 local elections, which were deeply flawed, was inexcusably muted. Have we not learnt that there can be no real stability without democracy, the rule of law and an honest economy? This time the European Union needs to send a very strong signal that there cannot be a partnership with Azerbaijan without democracy and human rights there.
President Aliyev has to decide whether to embrace the democratic process or try to maintain autocratic rule with just a thin veneer of legitimacy. We need to tell him that, if he wants the European Union as a friend, there is only one choice.
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