AZERBAIJAN PUBLIC CHAMBER
STATEMENT
On 27 April 2012, “Yeni Azerbaijan”, the official newspaper of the governing
New Azerbaijan Party, carried an article “Diplomatic Order: Opposition, be
Ready for Eurovision”, which contains highly libelous and scurrilous content,
designed to discredit Azerbaijani opposition parties, civil society and
independent media. The article also includes a scandalous photographic collage,
depicting German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Herbert Quelle, German Human Rights
Ombudsman Mr Markus Loening and the leaders of major Azerbaijani democratic
opposition parties, juxtaposed with an image of Adolf Hitler.
The Public Chamber (PC) resolutely rejects libelous allegations in the article,
regarding German state funding of Azerbaijani opposition. The PC categorically
insists that no such arrangements exist or have existed in the past. The
allegations are being taken very seriously and legal advice is being sought
with the aim of challenging this attempt at discrediting democratic opposition
parties. It is clear that this is a politically motivated act of defamation by
the authoritarian regime of Ilham Aliyev.
The Public Chamber utterly condemns insulting images carried in the article.
These images seriously damage Azerbaijan’s standing, image and reputation in
Europe and beyond, and are detrimental to Azerbaijani-German relations. It is
obvious that the authors of the article (at the “Yeni Azerbaijan” Analytical
Group) intended to insult and offend Azerbaijan’s German friends and partners
and have thus undermined Azerbaijani national interests in Europe. The Public Chamber
would like to offer sincere apologies to our German colleagues and friends, who
have undoubtedly been offended by this gross violation of acceptable standards.
We would like to stress that such articles and actions by the undemocratic
authoritarian Aliyev regime bear no connection to the true views and opinions
of Azerbaijani people and do not reflect the reality of Azerbaijani society.
May 2, 2012
End
The above-mentioned libelous and scurrilous article in the original is here.