'Kazakh president is right to criticize OSCE'

The criticism of the OSCE's "double standards" voiced during Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev's speech at an annual meeting is correct, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Astana Zakir Hashimov said.

"I think that today's speech was very informative and helpful," he said. "Each of us, the diplomats who were present at the meeting, got a comprehensive answer to the question. And everyone understood the president's speech."

In particular, the criticism voiced by the Kazakh leader to the OSCE observation mission was constructive.

"Not only Kazakhstan, but also other CIS countries, are indignant at the policy in the OSCE activity," he said. "There were observers from Azerbaijan and other CIS countries in the last parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan. They all spoke positively about the electoral process in Kazakhstan. But the OSCE observers had other point of view.
Although we all saw the real situation."

The ambassador said not only the behavior of the OSCE observation mission, but also its other bodies deserves criticism.

"It is not a secret that Azerbaijan has comments on the passive position of the OSCE Minsk Group on Nagorno-Karabakh," he said. "This issue has not been resolved for more than 20 years." Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev reiterated on Friday that Astana
may waive the presence of the OSCE observation mission during the elections in the country.

"As the president, hosting the OSCE historical summit in December 2010, I worry about the lack of dynamics in the implementation of the Astana Declaration.

"One can hear amazing and unexplained things," he said. "For example, many members of missions before the elections positively spoke about the organizing of the electoral process, and then suddenly they started repeating the same phrases about the mythical non-compliance with some standards."


/Trend/