07/10/2013 14:35
Asatrian: There are no democratic processes in Azerbaijan
“Ilham Aliyev has every chance to be reelected as Azerbaijani president. Yet any positive changes in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations can hardly be expected,” Menua Soghomonian, an expert on Azerbaijan, said at a press conference today.
In his words, authoritarian states always behave in an aggressive and unpredictable way.
“The more democratic Azerbaijan will become, the more predicable it will be for its neighbors,” Soghomonian said. He expressed an opinion that a military situation would be advantageous to I. Aliyev as under such conditions he can consolidate his position.
In the words of another expert on Azerbaijan, Sargis Asatrian, the Azerbaijani authorities are doing everything for the presidential election to pass off smoothly. “They do it in order to show the democratic changes in Azerbaijan to the West. However, there are no democratic processes in Azerbaijan and they can hardly be expected in the next ten years,” Asatrian said.