Khazar Ibrahim: "Democracy in Azerbaijan is at least no worse than in Georgia and does not fall in comparison with Armenia"

In particular, answering the question of Zoltan Sigetti, director of the Peace Corps on Azerbaijan, about the state of democratic development in the South Caucasus, she announced: "The Caucasus, particularly the -- not so much Georgia, but Azerbaijan, to a certain extent Armenia, there is important work to be done there to bring that part of the Caucasus closer to standards that we thought they were once meeting".

At the same time, Rice said "I would love to see more volunteers in that part of the world, both in places that are starting to move up and places that are still mired in the kinds of problems that you have in Azerbaijan" (the full text is available at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2008/04/104120.htm).

In the light of intensively developing US-Azerbaijani relations, the said announcements of the US Secretary of State seem a bit unexpected. Day.Az has addressed the spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry for comments.

"We have familiarized with the statement of the US Secretary of State and we  would like to note that the assessment of the situation in our region do not fall under any critics and is a demonstration of double standards. Democracy in Azerbaijan is at least no worse than in Georgia and does not fall in comparison with Azerbaijan.

First of all, protestors are not killed in our country, second we do not apply emergency situation, and third we do not shutdown independent TV channels and other mass medias, Moreover, we do not commit ethnic cleansing or occupy the lands of other countries, which is by no means a part of democracy.

It seems to us that Washington does not have a real idea of the region, which is disappointing, considering the relations of strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the United States", said Ibrahim.

/Day.Az/