Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev repeatedly states: \u201cI doesn\u2019t care who says what about my country, I will continue doing whatever I want.\u201d However, this is a cover up. Regardless of his public tough talk, Azerbaijan is working behind the scenes to manage its conflicts with other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, I wrote that Azerbaijan asked the Israeli government to intercede with France to improve their relations which have deteriorated in recent years due to the French support of Armenia in the Artsakh conflict. Since Israel turned down Aliyev\u2019s request to mediate with France, Azerbaijan started looking for other channels to resolve its problems with Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) suspended Azerbaijan\u2019s membership, Aliyev asked the League of Arab States to intervene with Europeans to restore Azerbaijan\u2019s status. On February 13, 2024, at Azerbaijan\u2019s request, Adel bin Abdul Rahman Al-Asoomi, the President of the Arab League\u2019s Parliament, sent a letter to the President of PACE, Theodoros Rousopoulos, complaining about the resolution PACE had adopted refusing to ratify the credentials of the delegation of Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President of the Arab Parliament told PACE: \u201cThe Arab Parliament expresses its deep regret over the adoption of this resolution; the Republic of Azerbaijan is a friend and strategic partner of the Arab States and plays a significant and influential role to preserve cultural diversity and to promote dialogue among civilizations. \u2026The Republic of Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe since 2001 and plays a major role in promoting activities of this Organization and achieving its principles and objectives. At the global level, it makes concerted efforts to lower tensions and conflicts\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The President of the Arab Parliament then counseled PACE: \u201cMultilateral parliamentary diplomacy must be an instrument to reconcile points of view, and a wall of resistance in front of any divisions, and an added value for the diffusion of the principles of peace and tolerance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The letter ended by urging PACE to reconsider its earlier resolution that had refused to ratify the credentials of Azerbaijan\u2019s parliamentary delegation \u201cwhich contradict the principles of dialog and cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naturally, Azerbaijan\u2019s Parliament (Milli Majlis) immediately publicized the Arab Parliament\u2019s letter which was also published by several Azeri newspapers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is very odd that the Arab Parliament would intervene with PACE on a matter that has nothing to do with Arab states. Azerbaijan is neither a member nor an observer of the Arab League. How can the President of the Arab Parliament call Azerbaijan \u201ca friend and strategic partner of Arab States,\u201d when it is an ally of Israel and buys billions of dollars of Israeli weapons? That is the reason Azerbaijan\u2019s request in the past for observer status was rejected by the Arab League. The only possible explanation for the Arab Parliament\u2019s willingness to write a letter to PACE is that Azerbaijan was engaged in its usual practice of \u2018Caviar Diplomacy,\u2019 meaning that it made a very generous donation to the Arab League. Therefore, the Arab Parliament\u2019s statement about Azerbaijan seeking dialog and peace has nothing to do with reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since Armenia has had an Observer status with the League of Arab States since 2005, I am curious to know if Armenia\u2019s representative in the League was aware that the Arab Parliament was considering sending such a letter to PACE in support of Azerbaijan. If yes, what actions, if any, he or she took to object to sending such a letter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to the Arab League, Azerbaijan is pursuing its lobbying efforts at PACE through its big brother Erdogan, the President of Turkey. Yasar Yakis, the former Foreign Minister of Turkey and founder of the ruling AK Party, wrote in ARAB NEWS on February 25: \u201cTurkey has strongly opposed the suspension of Azerbaijan [from PACE]…. Even if Azerbaijan\u2019s membership of the Council of Europe is suspended, it could survive without being a member.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in February, when Aliyev visited Erdogan in Ankara, the Turkish President pledged to do everything possible \u201cto get Azerbaijan’s credentials validated at PACE. We will continue our support and efforts for Azerbaijan until the decision [not ratifying its credentials] is overturned.\u201d Erdogan added that Turkey will stress that PACE should be a platform for \u201cparliamentary democracy rather than conflict.\u201d However, Aliyev and Erdogan do not have parliamentary democracy and peace in their own countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Aliyev truly did not care what actions other countries take against Azerbaijan, he would not have gone to such great lengths to lobby the Arab League and Pres. Erdogan to restore his country\u2019s credentials at PACE. He would have simply ignored PACE\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The truth is that Aliyev deeply cares about his image. Most dictators, having violated all sorts of domestic and international laws, do everything possible to whitewash their crimes and try to look like an angel in the eyes of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Azerbaijan\u2019s President Ilham Aliyev repeatedly states: \u201cI doesn\u2019t care who says what about my country, I will continue doing whatever I want.\u201d However, this is a cover up. Regardless of his public tough talk, Azerbaijan is working behind the scenes to manage its conflicts with other countries. Last week, I wrote that Azerbaijan asked the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4101,"featured_media":674322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3488],"tags":[6744],"class_list":["post-823688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harut-sassounian","tag-ilham-aliyev"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4101"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}