Center for National and International Studies (CNIS) held a roundtable on the topic of "What is priority for the West: democracy or energy interests?"
Although the event was intended to be held in ISR-Plaza, it refused to rent a room under pretext of lack of electricity. Due to this the event was held in the office of Azerbaijan National Committee of Helsinki Citizens' Assembly.
One of speakers, representative of Kazakhstan International Bureau on Human Rights Yevgeny Zhovtis said the West sacrifices democracy for energy interests in this country. According to the expert, oil, gas, struggle with terrorism and security interests are foes of democracy. The West due to its energy and security interests disregard problems on human rights. Moreover, authoritarian regimes use these factors to operate against democracy.
CNIS expert Jeyhun Valiyev focused mainly on the United States policy towards Azerbaijan in the recent 20 years. He believes that after 9/11 terrorism act Azerbaijan's importance for the USA from a security perspective has escalated. Washington has paid less attention to democracy because of the increasing role of Azerbaijan. The USA, which supported orange revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia in 2003 and 2004, took wait-and-see attitude towards total falsification of the results of 2003 Presidential Election in Azerbaijan.
Analytic journalist Shahin Abbasov drew attention to the relations between European Union and Azerbaijan. He spoke about EU's double-standards approach in respect of democracy in Azerbaijan, and stressed that in the EU policy energy factor is prevalent due to subjective and objective reasons.
In recent years, Azerbaijan's importance in the energy security of Europe has increased. Baku is implementing important pipeline projects such as TAP and TANAP. This is why EU does not insist on acceleration of democratic reforms. Bu there are some subjective factor as well, which influence the EU policy towards Azerbaijan. Recently the government of Azerbaijan has engaged in extensive lobbying in Europe, using "caviar policy." Supporting cultural projects, sports events , such as the European Olympic Games , Baku tries to create a favorable image of the successful model of the secular regime in a Muslim country.
Russian expert Arkady Dubnov spoke about strategic interests of the West and democracy in Russia. According to him, previously it was possible to speak about imitation of democracy in Russia, but now talks about democracy in Russia are a sign of bad behavior. In his view, over the past two years Russia has entered the path of open disregarding the principles of democracy and elimination of the institutions of civil society.
