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EUROPE WITHOUT 'CONSCIENCE'?
Panorama.am
31/05/2012
At the entrance to the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg it's written:
"Democratic conscience of Europe." This is how the organization,
actively engaged in the political processes in South Caucasus states
for almost 11 years, proudly calls itself. However, in recent years
this organization gives rise to seriously and profoundly suspect its
right to be called so.
In the previous issue of 'Golos Armenia' (Voice of Armenia)
daily we have already covered a report by the European Stability
Initiative (ESI) nonprofit organization titled "Diplomacy of caviar:
How Azerbaijan made Council of Europe to dummy up." It unveiled the
anatomy of a miserable process born in January 2001 when Azerbaijan
entered this structure, in the aftermath of which, according to ESI
report, the Council of Europe is coping with very serious challenges
"to recover fundamental European values for justifying its future
existence."
A more interesting part of ESI report is the description of
mechanisms with which PACE positively assessed parliamentary
elections in Azerbaijan in 2010, however, described in the report as
"fraudulent" and "the worst" elections in the history of CoE. The
report unveiled how Baku sought appointment of corrupted rapporteurs
in the Parliamentary Assembly, thus the authorities managed to
escape the negative consequences of the elections. "In 2010 not a
single opposition party received parliamentary mandate. How could it
happen that the head of PACE elections observation mission declared
the elections were in line with the international standards and with
the Council of Europe standards? Why are the debates about Azerbaijan
in PACE becoming more praising and encouraging when the situation on
human rights is steadily deteriorating since 2003?" ESI report said.
A scandal took place between PACE and ODIHR observers during the
elections. Unlike corrupted representatives of PACE, who sought to give
a positive assessment of "fraudulent elections," ODIHR representative
Audrey Glover declared that the elections were non-democratic, and
serious violations were committed during the elections. In return,
"PACE representatives called ODIHR's position "idiotic," insisting
that the elections were good," report's authors say. They report that
several days later head of OSCE PA delegation Wolfgang Grossruck sent
a letter to OSCE head, complaining about Audrey Glover and blaming
ODIHR for its lack of professionalism.
Member of PACE observer mission Tadeus Ivinski also complained about
ODIHR in 2011.
It is not accidental that we call attention to disagreements between
representatives of the two European organizations. PACE Standing
Committee met in Tirana on May 25. PACE Election Observation Mission
to Armenia headed by Baroness Emma Nicholson made a report on Armenia's
parliamentary elections at the meeting. Experts have already called the
report contradictory, saying that the report contains manipulations and
disparities. More, in her speech, the Baroness welcomed development of
democratic processes in Armenia, while, in the report, she used the
expression "anti-democratic approach." There is an abrupt difference
between the assessment of the elections by ODIHR and PACE missions,
while immediately after the elections both of these organizations
gave a positive assessment. It only remains to guess the reason why
the Baroness radically changed her opinion in two weeks' time.
In this context it is noteworthy that ESI report mentions parity
approach to Armenia and Azerbaijan, shown while admitting South
Caucasus countries to the Council of Europe, with calls of human
rights organizations for not admitting Azerbaijan disregarded, and
unanimous positive view regarding Armenia. Since then the practice
of vicious parity, despite obvious difference between democratic
developments (with undoubted existence of serious problems in Armenia)
has been dominating in the policy of PACE. And "caviar diplomacy"
considerably reinforced this policy requiring not only keeping silent
about authoritarianism and mass human rights violations in Azerbaijan
but also asserting in the European community that Armenia allegedly
hardly differs from its neighbor in observance of human rights and
fulfillment of its commitments to the Council of Europe. Isn't it
the main reason behind the striking drops of moods and assessments
of PACE mission, in particular, head of the mission Emma Nicholson?
Meanwhile, another scandal broke out regarding the current and former
members of the PACE. The Swedish newspaper Expressen published an
article on May 29, which contains harsh criticism about former MEP
Goran Lindblad in connection with the corrupt regime of Baku, which
many Swedish officials say is a "disgusting and horrible phenomenon."
It is worth remembering that two years ago Lindblad was appointed
rapporteur on Armenia, which caused a backlash with the Armenian
delegation. The Swede publicly had accused the head of the delegation
Mr. D. Harutyunyan in a bribe attempt. Time puts everything in its
place proving also the fact that one measures the political "shirt"
by his own bushel, which was also in the case of Lindblad and his
corrupt colleagues, expressed in quantities of caviar from Baku,
silk carpets and petrodollars.
Although the report on the "caviar diplomacy" is certainly a severe
blow to official Baku, however, there is little change in the
perception of this state by the international community. Thoroughly
corrupted, mired in dirty fraud, embezzlement of state property and
robbery of his own people, the Aliyev regime in recent decades is
trying to spread in Europe and in the world their own morals and
a mechanism to address the issues by giving generous bribes and
expensive gifts buying almost everything - starting with the shameful
silence of PACE, UN, UNESCO and other organizations till the awards
and titles given by the first lady, Olympic medals and victories in
song competitions.
But there is a far more important issue - the Council of Europe
and its Parliamentary Assembly, which brought very serious charges,
threatening a complete loss of credibility and discreditation. The
"Conscience of Europe" is facing a serious challenge and a test in
"caviar diplomacy" and in political commitment and bias, in general,
in favor of highly questionable purposes which have nothing to do
neither with democracy, nor with conscience.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Panorama.am
31/05/2012
At the entrance to the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg it's written:
"Democratic conscience of Europe." This is how the organization,
actively engaged in the political processes in South Caucasus states
for almost 11 years, proudly calls itself. However, in recent years
this organization gives rise to seriously and profoundly suspect its
right to be called so.
In the previous issue of 'Golos Armenia' (Voice of Armenia)
daily we have already covered a report by the European Stability
Initiative (ESI) nonprofit organization titled "Diplomacy of caviar:
How Azerbaijan made Council of Europe to dummy up." It unveiled the
anatomy of a miserable process born in January 2001 when Azerbaijan
entered this structure, in the aftermath of which, according to ESI
report, the Council of Europe is coping with very serious challenges
"to recover fundamental European values for justifying its future
existence."
A more interesting part of ESI report is the description of
mechanisms with which PACE positively assessed parliamentary
elections in Azerbaijan in 2010, however, described in the report as
"fraudulent" and "the worst" elections in the history of CoE. The
report unveiled how Baku sought appointment of corrupted rapporteurs
in the Parliamentary Assembly, thus the authorities managed to
escape the negative consequences of the elections. "In 2010 not a
single opposition party received parliamentary mandate. How could it
happen that the head of PACE elections observation mission declared
the elections were in line with the international standards and with
the Council of Europe standards? Why are the debates about Azerbaijan
in PACE becoming more praising and encouraging when the situation on
human rights is steadily deteriorating since 2003?" ESI report said.
A scandal took place between PACE and ODIHR observers during the
elections. Unlike corrupted representatives of PACE, who sought to give
a positive assessment of "fraudulent elections," ODIHR representative
Audrey Glover declared that the elections were non-democratic, and
serious violations were committed during the elections. In return,
"PACE representatives called ODIHR's position "idiotic," insisting
that the elections were good," report's authors say. They report that
several days later head of OSCE PA delegation Wolfgang Grossruck sent
a letter to OSCE head, complaining about Audrey Glover and blaming
ODIHR for its lack of professionalism.
Member of PACE observer mission Tadeus Ivinski also complained about
ODIHR in 2011.
It is not accidental that we call attention to disagreements between
representatives of the two European organizations. PACE Standing
Committee met in Tirana on May 25. PACE Election Observation Mission
to Armenia headed by Baroness Emma Nicholson made a report on Armenia's
parliamentary elections at the meeting. Experts have already called the
report contradictory, saying that the report contains manipulations and
disparities. More, in her speech, the Baroness welcomed development of
democratic processes in Armenia, while, in the report, she used the
expression "anti-democratic approach." There is an abrupt difference
between the assessment of the elections by ODIHR and PACE missions,
while immediately after the elections both of these organizations
gave a positive assessment. It only remains to guess the reason why
the Baroness radically changed her opinion in two weeks' time.
In this context it is noteworthy that ESI report mentions parity
approach to Armenia and Azerbaijan, shown while admitting South
Caucasus countries to the Council of Europe, with calls of human
rights organizations for not admitting Azerbaijan disregarded, and
unanimous positive view regarding Armenia. Since then the practice
of vicious parity, despite obvious difference between democratic
developments (with undoubted existence of serious problems in Armenia)
has been dominating in the policy of PACE. And "caviar diplomacy"
considerably reinforced this policy requiring not only keeping silent
about authoritarianism and mass human rights violations in Azerbaijan
but also asserting in the European community that Armenia allegedly
hardly differs from its neighbor in observance of human rights and
fulfillment of its commitments to the Council of Europe. Isn't it
the main reason behind the striking drops of moods and assessments
of PACE mission, in particular, head of the mission Emma Nicholson?
Meanwhile, another scandal broke out regarding the current and former
members of the PACE. The Swedish newspaper Expressen published an
article on May 29, which contains harsh criticism about former MEP
Goran Lindblad in connection with the corrupt regime of Baku, which
many Swedish officials say is a "disgusting and horrible phenomenon."
It is worth remembering that two years ago Lindblad was appointed
rapporteur on Armenia, which caused a backlash with the Armenian
delegation. The Swede publicly had accused the head of the delegation
Mr. D. Harutyunyan in a bribe attempt. Time puts everything in its
place proving also the fact that one measures the political "shirt"
by his own bushel, which was also in the case of Lindblad and his
corrupt colleagues, expressed in quantities of caviar from Baku,
silk carpets and petrodollars.
Although the report on the "caviar diplomacy" is certainly a severe
blow to official Baku, however, there is little change in the
perception of this state by the international community. Thoroughly
corrupted, mired in dirty fraud, embezzlement of state property and
robbery of his own people, the Aliyev regime in recent decades is
trying to spread in Europe and in the world their own morals and
a mechanism to address the issues by giving generous bribes and
expensive gifts buying almost everything - starting with the shameful
silence of PACE, UN, UNESCO and other organizations till the awards
and titles given by the first lady, Olympic medals and victories in
song competitions.
But there is a far more important issue - the Council of Europe
and its Parliamentary Assembly, which brought very serious charges,
threatening a complete loss of credibility and discreditation. The
"Conscience of Europe" is facing a serious challenge and a test in
"caviar diplomacy" and in political commitment and bias, in general,
in favor of highly questionable purposes which have nothing to do
neither with democracy, nor with conscience.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress