Azerbaijan's Parliamentary Elections. "Caviar Diplomacy" will Again be Used

• 09.07.2015, 11:40
• Greta Avetisyan
•  Region,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Armenia,  NKR,  Analytics

Azerbaijani political parties have already begun to register for parliamentary elections, scheduled for November 1. Still one bloc is known to have registered - "Azadlig 2015", which includes "Azadlig", "Aydinlir", "Liberal Democrat", "United Azerbaijan", "Citizenship and Development" parties.

The real interest of Azerbaijan's parliamentary elections is, however, not so much how many and which parties will participate in the campaign, because the results are already clear, but what steps Azerbaijan will take to mislead the international community and legitimize the election results. It is also obvious that the ruling party during the campaign, more than ever will try to distract public attention from the country's internal political rather complicated situation, creating favorable conditions for the government.

We are already witnessing examples of such attempts. The tense situation on the borders should also be seen as quite a strong wave on the eve of Azerbaijani parliamentary elections. With this step, as well as with a large-scale propaganda Azerbaijan tries to solve several questions.

First, by creating tensions on NKR-Azerbaijan, Armenia-Azerbaijan borders and by using its propaganda Azerbaijan tries to convince the international community and its own people that the lack of progress in the negotiations is also because of the "actions" of the Armenian sides.

Second, by exaggerating the number of the losses of the Armenian side (sometimes also publishing about the losses of the Azerbaijani side being unable to completely hide them anymore, because of the large number of victims), Azerbaijan is trying to show its "strength" to prove that the authorities are doing everything to protect their citizens.

Third, as it has been repeatedly noted the tense situation on the borders is the best "reason" for the disappearance of most of the petrodollars.

If we come to the "participation" of the international community in elections in Azerbaijan, then it should be noted with surprise that despite the closure of the OSCE office in Baku, after several controversial news the organization has confirmed that it will be sending 350 observers to Azerbaijan. Does the policy of blackmailing and "caviar diplomacy" still work effectively. Is the reason for the OSCE short memory interests? In this context, we cannot exclude that international organizations would give positive assessments about the process of election campaign, the elections themselves and their results.