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Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Aliyev's Authoritarian Regime Uses E

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  • Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: Aliyev's Authoritarian Regime Uses E

    FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG: ALIYEV'S AUTHORITARIAN REGIME USES EUROPEAN GAMES TO SATISFY ITS AMBITIONS

    12:47 01/04/2015 >> Region

    10 weeks remain until the opening of the European Games, the
    prestigious project of the ruling regime in Azerbaijan which violates
    the human rights. In this regard, the criticism of the European
    Olympic Committee increases, well-known German newspaper Frankfurter
    Allgemeine Zeitung writes.

    It is noted in the article that 10 weeks before the opening of
    the European Games in Azerbaijan's capital Baku on 12 June, the
    international organization Human Rights Watch highlighted the serious
    human rights violations by the President Ilham Aliyev's regime during
    a meeting with the representatives of the German Olympic Sports
    Confederation (DOSB).

    "The Games did not bring about changes in the policy in Azerbaijan. On
    the contrary, the situation in Azerbaijan is much worse than it used
    to be a year ago," Director of the Human Rights Watch at Europe and
    Central Asia, Hugh Williamson, told the newspaper. He also criticized
    the attitude of the Games' organizers - the European Olympic Committee
    (EOC). The Europeans set an ill example for Baku and undermine the
    reform movement of the International Olympic Committee.

    Moreover, as the article has it, it is very frustrating that other
    National Olympic Committees (NOC) still do not respond to the
    human rights violations in Azerbaijan. According to the article,
    the spokesperson for the Netherlands Olympic Committee said that
    the Olympic values are the 'inseparable part' of the European Games,
    and the hosting country carries the responsibility to observe those
    values. The representative of the Olympic Committee of Norway explained
    that the sportsmen's participation in the Games "highlights the human
    rights violations in Baku."

    According to the article, Christian Klaue, the DOSB representative,
    was the only one to express concern regarding the events in Azerbaijan
    and promised to raise the issue in Baku.

    The newspaper writes that the former Soviet Republic is ruled by the
    Aliyev clan since the late 60s. Famous journalists and human rights
    defenders, including Leyla and Arif Yunuses, Khadija Ismayilova,
    were arrested in Azerbaijan in 2014. Amnesty International recently
    published a video where the arrested human rights defenders' daughter,
    Dinara Yunus, asks the President Aliyev, "Mr President, can you explain
    me why my mother was arrested after she criticized the European Games?"

    It is highlighted in the article that Azerbaijan was ranked 162nd
    (among 180 states) in the Press Freedom Index of the organization
    Reporters Without Borders, and CPJ (Committee to Protect Journalists)
    said on Friday that Azerbaijan is ranked 9th in the list of the
    countries having most arrested journalists.

    Aliyev, also being the President of the National Olympic Committee,
    uses the Games to promote the sport policy ambitions of his country.

    Last week Aliyev said that "a campaign against his country has been
    on for many years," and the criticism of the NGOs is its part, the
    article reads.

    Aliyev "is guided by hypocrisy, double standards, discrimination,
    racism, Islamophobia and xenophobia, rather than by the international
    law," the newspaper cites Die Weltpolitik.

    http://www.panorama.am/en/politics/2015/04/01/frankfurter/


    From: Baghdasarian
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