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"Azerbaijanis of America for Democracy” (AZAD) Azerbaijani organization located in the United States organized in Washington a debate concerning human rights violations and democracy in Azerbaijan, as well as U.S. and Azerbaijani relations, the Azerbaijani news agency "Turan" reports.

Making speech at the meeting, the head of AZAD Elmar Shakhtakhtinski and other speakers noted that the deterioration of the situation in Azerbaijan can make the West and the United States to recognize the priority of democracy and human rights issues.

"Azerbaijan’s ability of remaining a stable partner for the West is questioned regarding the deterioration of the situation of democracy and widespread corruption," stated Shakhtakhtinski.

In its turn, the British human rights activist Rebecca Vincent noted that Azerbaijan is "not such a reliable partner as persistently tries to present itself." According to her, Baku does not fulfill all of its obligations in the field of human rights commitments which it undertook when joining the United Nations and the Council of Europe.

Vincent mentioned that there are 140 political prisoners under arrest in Azerbaijan, nine journalists and a blogger. The fact that journalists are no longer arrested for their work but are accused of disorderly conduct has become a new trend, she said. They are accused of drug possession, tax evasion, terrorism, etc. "This is done in order to hide the political motives of persecution," she said.

The head of the Club for Human Rights and coordinator of the project Art for Democracy Rasul Jafarov stated that the Azerbaijani government systematically violates human rights, ignoring international criticism, which indicates the lack of interest of the authorities in ensuring the standards of democracy and human rights. "In fact, the government is acting in a completely different direction with intention to create a self-censorship atmosphere in the society," he said.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Kozlarich, stated in his turn, that they need to pay more attention to the economic situation in Azerbaijan: the equitable distribution of wealth, the need for economic reforms. Regimes, where the president is elected with 85% of the vote, is "very vulnerable," says Kozlarich. In addition, he noted that Azerbaijan's oil production falls.

The deputy head of AZAD Gorkmaz Askerov noted that since the government completely controls the electronic media, the Internet is the only hope, but here the situation is also deteriorating. "The government continues to undertake steps for punishing those who use the Internet to express criticism. All of this allows us to come to the opinion that the claim of the president about the legitimate governance of the country in accordance with the will of the people is not true," said Gorkmaz Asgerov.

He also referred to the U.S. President Barack Obama’s belated congratulations addressed to Ilham Aliyev on the latter’s re-election to a third term. "These congratulations are signs of the problem. Imagine, if you it’s your birthday and someone congratulates you a month later," he added.

Panelists urged the Obama’s administration "not to rely on Ilham Aliyev’s government," "Turan" writes.