In her presentation  Leila Alieva stressed the role of Azerbaijan in regional and international energy security, as well as analyzed the relations between the energy security and other security threats, such as conflict with Armenia, and  political component of the energy security.

Professor of the Baku State University Bakhtiyar Aslanbeyli  described the Azerbaijan’s critical infrastructure related to the oil and gas development and transportation. The valuable commentaries were also provided by the other Azerbaijan participants- Ilham Shaban and Elkhan Mehdiyev. The results of the workshop will be reflected in the book planned to be published next year.

     Leila Alieva, President of the CNIS has opened the conference with a foreword “Although our Center is a research institution, we believe that the topic of the conference should concern any institution and individual  in Azerbaijan, because this is one of the fundamental freedoms of democratic society and is in our Constitution”. Alieva commented on the deteriorating situation with human rights, and in particular, the arrest of participants in peaceful demonstrations, the pressure on lawyers, the violation of property rights of citizens, including human rights defenders. She stressed, that all freedoms are closely connected to each other, and limitation of one type of freedom has inevitable effect on the others.

    The Head of the Council of Europe’s representation in Baku, ambassador  Constantine Yerokostopoulos, noted that despite the notification system in Azerbaijan, the organizers of rallies and other actions face problems, and risk being detained, arrested and fined.

     According to Yerokostopoulos, events in Baku in March-April showed that Azerbaijan does not fully comply with its obligations to the Council of Europe on the freedom of assembly, undertaken 10 years ago.

    Head of Politico-Military Unit of the OSCE Office in Baku, Mr. John MacGregor, stressed that “the State should always seek to facilitate and protect public assemblies at the organiser’s preferred location, and should also ensure that efforts to disseminate information to publicize forthcoming assemblies are not impeded”.

Mr. MacGregor reported on the international standards on freedom of assembly, which guarantee everyone the right to participate in peaceful assemblies. Restrictions on freedom of assembly must be proportionate and not violate the fundamental right to hold peaceful demonstrations. McGregor said that the restrictions must be justified and submitted to the organisers in advance so they had the opportunity to appeal those denials in court. In addition, the state must ensure the safety of rally participants. John Mad Gregor more specifically focused on the OSCE  Guidelines on Freedom of Assembly, which will be translated into Azerbaijani language by January 2012.

    Ms. Olexandra Delemenchuk from the Center of Civil Liberties (Ukraine), member of the Eurasia Idea Network., talked about the experience of achieving freedom of assembly in six post-Soviet countries, included to the “Eastern Partnership”. Actually, the problems with freedom of assembly embrace almost all the EaP countries. “Even Ukraine, which until recently was considered the most democratic and advanced country among the countries of the Eastern Partnership, is now experiencing a deep crisis in the sense of ensuring democratic freedoms”, stressed Ms. Delemenchuk.

She described the situation there as “one step forward, two steps back.”  These countries, which join the new international initiatives at the same time, have tightened their legislation. In her view, the most successful strategy is unity of representatives of various sectors of civil society,or cross sectoral networking. Another way she suggested was to initiate a mass litigation of appeals to the European Court for the violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens.

    Ms. Delemenchuk also talked about the positive experiences of civil society in Belarus and Armenia, which created the so-called “Foundations of Stability”. These funds are financed by the European Commission and NED (National Endowment for Democracy) and are used to support the families of those arrested at demonstrations, medical assistance to victims, etc.

    The leader of the “Musavat” party Isa Gambar noted the necessity of such kind assistance by international organizations to Azerbaijan, where recently 20 political prisoners have emerged.  But he also reproached the EU, OSCE and other structures in continuing to fund ineffective projects on “democratic enlightenment.”

Ali Kerimli, a  leader of People Front Party objected to the notion of one representative of the international organization that there should be an extreme situation in the country to make this organization to react or apply sanctions, and asked what else should happen in Azerbaijan, to recognize “an extreme situation, when one of two dictatorships in Europe functions in Azerbaijan (the other one is in Belarus). The authorities do not even give a visa to PACE Rapporteur on political prisoners, Kristof Strasser,” he said. “Why the energy issues are always dominated in the negotiations with the government and why the discussions about the provision of basic democratic freedoms are always ignored by European officials?”, stressed Ali Kerimli in his speech.

In their responses, the representatives of OSCE and Council of Europe stressed that they can only identify the problems and urge the authorities to solve them. The representative of the Council of Europe pointed to the complexity of such efforts, since decisions are often blocked by groups of states, supporting each other. In his view, such solutions are possible in special – extreme cases.

The participants offered to prepare a special appeal to the Catherine Ashton and outline the expectations of the Azerbaijani people from her official visit to the country.

Chair of the Legal Enlightenment Society, Intigam Aliyev, drew attention to the shortcomings in the law itself. In particular, he proposed to delete from the law- prohibiting demonstrations on the days of important public events of international importance- because similar actions take place in Baku almost every day. He also reproached the international organizations in their compromise with the authorities. Once their representative  told us  ” to be glad that the situation in your country is not like in Nigeria” and accused us of “not being constructive.” Just such a behavior of international organizations has led to the closure of foreign NGOs in Baku now.

Head of the Sumgayit Democracy and Human Rights Resource Centre, Asabali Mustafayev, focused on the political nature of the arrests of activists in the rallies in March and April, and stressed that the harsh sentences were inappropriate. He stressed the changed nature of the court proceedings nowadays. While in the past the prosecutor would support their charges against protesters  with “ evidence”, now they do not even bother to bring an evidence. He also noted the cases of tortures of detained and arrested.

Political parties, activists and NGOs urged the international organizations working in Baku not to compromise their principles and not to adjust them to the local conditions. One of the discussants even said, that when  international representatives visiting the country  do not meet political prisoners, hail the government for reduced terms for them, or are not strict enough in their assessment of the situation it creates an impression of the corruption of the foreign institutions. One of the  major question of discussions was how the international organizations can increase their influence on the improvement of the situation in Azerbaijan. The perception of such a fundamental freedom as freedom of assembly and its violations  is very different by the authorities and by  the society. Something which is perceived as natural aspect of human freedom by the civil society is perceived as illegal, type of hooliganism, or as a derogative – the expression of opposition by the government, even by those, who are in charge of human rights.

The participants has also touched upon an important issue of legal framework and disagreed with some assessments, that the law was good, while its implementation was bad. In fact, the law itself has many flaws, which need to be addressed, and this found its reflection in the recommendations of the conference, presented by the human rights lawyer nnagi Hacibeyli  to the government, international organizations and civil society.  The participants expressed their concern, that European Court for Human Rights does not consider the cases of violation of the Freedom of Assembly. The participants suggested to change an approach of the international organizations to the cooperation with  civil society organizations, which are divided by the government on “constructive” and “non-constructive”. The idea was expressed that when the international organizations ignore or do not consult with the opposition parties, the government stops taking these organizations seriously and in turn does not cooperate with international organizations. One of the problems, which society is experiencing is very little  resources, which is in contrast with billions of oil revenues which is enjoyed by  small group of ruling elite.

The role of media in the freedom of assembly was covered by the  director of   the  independent  News Agency Turan Mehman Aliyev. He noted that there is some positive changes in treatment of journalists at the meetings, as compared to the previous years. However, there is a difference in how newspapers are covering realization of the freedom of assembly – very few can cover them in unbiased and objective way.

Arzu Abdullayeva, a prominent human rights defender and the chair of the national chapter of Helsinki Assembly, focused on the issue of how effective  cooperation between the government, NGos and international organizations can be arranged to promote freedom of assembly. She stressed that for that to happen the parties ( government and the society) should have a will, possibilities, capacity and resources. Assessing the presence of political will,  she stressed that there was a specific NGO’s  proposal to have regular hearings in the parliament on the situation with human rights with participation of human rights activists and defenders, but the authorities.

According to Abdullayeva, the population has also changed and as a result of the policies  is driven by apathy, fear, rigidity and indifference. The cooperation has also different connotations.

While government understands cooperation as a way of “co-opting” civil society, using oil revenues, the civil society is approaching this cooperation with cautiousness and distrust.She called for unity between all layers of society and cooperation in addressing most pressing issues in the area of freedoms.

The participants expressed their comments and suggested their additions and corrections to the text of recommendation and appeal. They expressed their hopes, that the state of  freedom of assembly and the situation with political prisoners will  always stay in the center of attention of the society, and agreed to consolidate their efforts  in this direction.

For more information about the project, please visit the EU4SEAS website http://www.eu4seas.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=282&Itemid=20

In her opening speech at the conference Leyla Aliyeva, President of the Center for National and International Studies emphasizes that in 1990s Azerbaijan was weaker, but had a consistent and firm policy of rapprochement with NATO.

The leader of the Democratic Reforms Party (DRP), deputy Aim Mollazade noted in hisreport that after the restoration of Azerbaijan’s independence, the main political forces of the country got consensus about Euro-Atlantic integration.

However, according to Mollazade, to join the NATO Azerbaijan needs time, a new generation of managers should appear as well as developing of democratic institutions is needed.

As an example he mentioned the experience of the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine, after which it seemed that Ukraine is ready to join NATO, however five years later another mood prevails in Ukraine. Georgia’s untimely will to join NATO, and failure at the Bucharest summit of the Alliance resulted by August events in 2008, and Tbilisi was defenseless. Azerbaijan which refrains from such treatment, protected itself, Mollazade said.

The U.S. ambassador to Baku, Matthew Bryza, speaking on the new policy of NATO cooperation said after the Lisbon summit its doors are open to democratic European countries, including Azerbaijan, if they meet the criteria of the organization. In the specific case of Azerbaijan, Bryza said: “Lately, I have not heard about Azerbaijan’s intention to join NATO. I have heard that Azerbaijan wants closer integration with NATO.”

According to Bryza, Azerbaijan’s position is due to the national security interests in the neighborhood with such countries as Iran and Russia and the conflict with Armenia.

Nevertheless, in 1999 Azerbaijan granted its airspace for NATO operations in Afghanistan, and it was an important geo-strategic decision. Bryza also said that the USA support democratization processes in Azerbaijan, and there is positive progress, such as the release of the journalist Eynulla Fatullayev.

The Head of EU mission to Azerbaijan Roland Kobia said that Azerbaijan’s joining the NATO and the WTO is a voluntary choice of the country. However, reforms and joining the WTO would make possible signing a free trade agreement with the EU and privileges on the European markets. According to the member of Milli Majlis Rasim Musabeyov, Azerbaijan’s cooperation with NATO can develop even without joining the Alliance. Uncertainty around Azerbaijan’s joining the NATO is connected not only with unclear position of the authorities, but also absence of certainty in the position of the Alliance itself. Regarding the events in August 2008 Musabeyov said that USA and NATO were able to stop the Russian tanks and did not let them enter Tbilisi. At the same time, these events have shown that NATO is not willing to solve the problem of restoring Georgia’s territorial integrity. Expressing his attitude about Azerbaijan’s joining Non-Alignment Movement, Musabeyov stressed that this step testifies not only the desire to distance itself from NATO, but also unwillingness to join the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO).

NATO does not show sufficient interest and understanding to the problems of Azerbaijan. Thus, when Armenia threatens to attacks oil infrastructure in Azerbaijan, NATO not only refuses to supply appropriate defense systems to Azerbaijan, but also calls to cut military expenditures. In this situation Azerbaijan has to seek cooperation with Israel, or Russia.

In general, perspectives of cooperation with NATO are positive. According to results of pubic polls, over half the population supports the country’s integration into NATO and only 10.2% support membership in the Alliance. In addition, Azerbaijan’s extensive military cooperation with Turkey also strengthens the relationship with NATO.

A Conference on “Eurointegration and the way of settlement of the conflicts” organized by the Center for National and International Studies was held in Lenkoran city on May 28. 

In her opening speech at the conference Leyla Aliyeva, President of the Center for National and International Studies emphasizes that 93 years before, on that day of 1918 the first democratic state – Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was established. “Despite the difficulties, ADR always adhered the policy of integration with Europe.”

Ali Resul Usul, doctor of Istanbul Bahchishehir University touching upon the conflicts happened in the history of modern Turkey  stated that today Turkey is facing 3 main problems in its foreign policy – strained relations with Cyprus, Armenia and Greece delay the process of integration of Turkey with Europe.  “Acceptance of one part of Cyprus to the European Union was great mistake” – emphasized the Turkish guest.

Yadigar Sadikhov, a teacher of the Lenkeran State University speaking about the Eurointegration process and history of conflicts stated that “there have no been any military conflicts between the democratic states yet, but on the contrary permanent conflicts are happening between the states where dictatorship dominates. For instance, Iran-Irak conflict, occupation of Kuwait by Iraq, etc.”

In his speech Togrul Juvarli, analyst of Turan Agency stated that “today some people think that we should rely upon and trust somebody. But if the society is strong, then the state would be strong and there would no need for relying upon any powerful state.”

“Europe tries to ensure equal rights in each 3 states in the Southern Caucasus despite conflicts happening there, and to bring their legislations in line with European standards”- emphasized Togrul Juvarli.

 Ali Abasov, Professor of National Academy of Sciences comparing CIS and European Union stated that “any conflicts have not been settled in the CIS space and at present some conflicts are still continuing. On the other hand, we see that the conflicts happening from time to time are being settled as soon as possible. The main reason of it is that the member countries of the European Union differ from each other only in their cultures.”

Leyla Aliyeva commenting the speech of Ali Abasov stated that today the chance of acceding to the European Union by the countries of Eastern Partners is high compared to Turkey.

 The event was continued with interesting discussions.

At her opening speech Leyla Aliyeva, President of CNIS emphasized that “pluralism is one of the basic principles of democracy. For a long time Azerbaijan had one-party system, and multi-party system that was applied in the times of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (in the years 1918-20) was restored only in 1991.  Turkey transferred to multi-party system in 1946. Nevertheless, both countries experience difficulties in provision of political pluralism.”

Yilmaz Asmer, chancellor of the Turkish University “Bakhchisheher” stated that pluralistic society consider peaceful coexistence of different quarters of society. However, there are some problems between alavits, kurds, non-muslims and ateists in provision of such coexistence in the modern Turkey. Despite of equality of all before the law, however, religious rights of 10 million Turkish alavits are not taken into account.

 On the other hand, political leaders prefer the religious and at the same time ignore atheists. “Almost there are no representatives of national minorities in high offices and parliament. In reality, pluralism means provision of the rights of majorities and at the same time following the interests of minorities”, said Asmer.

Irada Baghirova, local reporter of the conference, historian-scientist reported on the scientific-historical topic “Political and pluralism traditions in Azerbaijan”. While touching upon the pluralism traditions of Azerbaijan dated back to 100 years, Ms.Baghirova stated :“For instance, in the beginning of XX century, there was Difai Party headed by Ahmed bey Aghayev. The main requirements of “Difai” related to execution of religious requirements and shariat principles, as well as education. The basic topics of the first program of Musavat party established in 1911 related to religious matters. That program included religious matters, as well as unification of all Muslims.” Comprehensive and concrete facts on wide pluralism traditions of APF power were mentioned in the report.

At the discussion part of the conference, Hikmet Hajizade, political analyst spoke briefly on the topic “Development of political pluralism in the modern Azerbaijan”, and being a moderator and commentator of this part of the conference he ensured the discussions concerning some questions. The conference ended with these polemics.

Dr. Jamil Hasanli, a professor of the Baku State University told about the formation of the Azerbaijani state and national political identity in the 19-20 centuries. The idea of ​​identity occurred in Azerbaijan in the mid 19th century.  “The idea of ​​identity occurred in Azerbaijan in the mid 19 Th century. Then that began the transition from the Islamic community to the Azeri-Turkic community. This trend is could be   observed in the writings and activities of prominent scientists and thinkers Abbasgulu Aga Bakikhanov, Mirza Fatali Akhundov and Hasan Bey Zardabi. Realizing that without the national press Azerbaijanis will face backwardness and isolation from the world culture, Hasan bey Zardabi founded the first Azerbaijani newspaper “Ekinchi”  in 1875. He also supported the establishment of secular education because of restricted knowledge got in the madrassa” , said Hasanli.

“Today, the geography of search for the national identity is limited by Baku only, while we should not forget about Ganja, the first capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic”, stressed Mr. Jamil Hasanli.

Dr. Ilhan Uzgel, a professor of Ankara University told that Ataturk created a secular Turkish state which meets the requirements of Turkish intellectuals who supported the adoption of Western modernism and rationalism. 

Common national identity throughout the 20-th century was resisted by the Islamic and ethnic identity in the face of Kurdish nationalism, and socialist oriented ideological identity. 

However, in early 1990 the situation changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, because the attractiveness of socialist ideas decreased, but the Islamists strengthened.  This trend intensified particularly after the party of Justice and Development has come to power. The priority of Erdogan’s party is to return to the Ottoman identity. His supporters believe that the Turkey has focused on the model of Ataturk Turkey, but the progress of the country requires restoration of good relations with its former suburbs of the Ottoman Empire. It explains active policy of Erdogan government in the Middle East. 

Dr. Ali Abbasov, a professor and well-known philosopher , stated that Azerbaijan can have different socio-cultural models of the state. One of them can be based on a triune formula of the founders of APP “Turkization, Islamization, modernization.”  Another variant could be a model of many Western states, based on the political unity of the citizens, instead of unity on the basis of an ethnic community, the expert said.