West trades Azerbaijani democracy for oil, experts say

The West is interested not so much in the progress of democracy in Azerbaijan, but rather in Azerbaijani oil. Experts made this conclusion, while assessing the Azerbaijan's role in international relations during the pre-election period, and in democracy issues.

Thus, Mekhman Aliev, director of the "Turan" News Agency, has noted in his conversation with the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that the role of international organizations in promoting and defending democracy in Azerbaijan, and in South Caucasus as a whole, cannot be named satisfactory.

"For the years of Azerbaijan's close cooperation with western institutes the situation in the country became worse in all areas. From year to year, in various international ratings the country is a confident leader in all negative indicators," the expert asserts.

As he said, in recent years the Azerbaijani authorities have been consistently destroying the freedom of expression and monopolizing the media space, "trying to fix control over public consciousness."

"Similar processes are underway in all the spheres. Should international organizations have really followed their mandates, this hasn't been the case," Mr Aliev has emphasized.

Speaking about elections, Mekhman Aliev has noticed that "assessment of elections in South-Caucasian countries by international organizations has never been fair and duly balanced."

"Moreover, by their attitude, these organizations encouraged the authorities for new violations. Let's take fresh examples: the inadequate assessment of the outcomes of the recent elections has ended in Armenia by defeat of peaceful resistance and murders, in Georgia - by broad-scale falsifications of parliamentary elections, and in Azerbaijan - by toughening the electoral process," the expert said.

Political scientist Araz Alizade, co-chairman of the Social-Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (SDPA), believes that all international organizations are controlled by the USA, where the rules of the game are defined. And in the case of Azerbaijan, the USA makes more emphasis on oil and gas than on democracy.

"There's also another aim - to restrict Russia's influence. This is the game that Bush plays in the Caucasus. Let's take Saakashvili - what sort of democrat is he? He has rooted out all democracy sprouts in Georgia, but Rice calls him the greatest democrat of today," the political scientist said.