It is hard to speak of facts, because, let’s face it, there are none. The report is replete with amusing arguments such as “he said this”, “she said that” and, our favourite, “those two were standing suspiciously too close to each other”. If such “facts” are enough to accuse someone of corruption, then all officials all over the world should be jailed. There is no official, MP or politician in the world that one would not find such black pool on. Well, even if not found, it is not hard to tailor some.

Some accusations are outright funny. One had his ticket fare paid, the other’s hotel fee was paid. An extremely beautiful girl suspiciously knocked on the door of the third one with a champagne glass in her hand, but, darn, the guy turned out to be impotent! I can just imagine this scene in one of the films by Coen brothers: “A girl is theatrically knocking on the European MP’s door, and he screams all fragile inside “Leave me alone, or I’ll call the police!”

Is that really how they compile their reports? Every foreigner, who travels to Azerbaijan, knows that everybody here tries their best to accommodate their guests, pay their hotel fees and even see them back with a keepsake present. It has absolutely nothing to do with being an MP or an official: I know people, who paid their guests’ hotel feels by taking a loan, as they could not afford it. This is a thing of national honour and hospitality and has nothing to do with corruption.

I mean, I would understand it if some people, who had nothing to do, were discussing such matters, while chewing on their sunflower seeds sitting on a park bench. No one could judge them. But when professional politicians accuse a country and their own colleagues of corruption based on such rumours, it is nothing but flippancy and obvious bias.

If we look at the matter from the opposite angle, we can confidently say that no serious parliamentarian would vote for such report, which taints the institution they too represent, if they did not have some personal interest. This is why even the mere adoption of this report reeks of corruption more than all the documents, adopted in Azerbaijan’s so-called favor! Because differently from this report, those documents spoke the truth.

For example, one of the documents told to be adopted as a result of corruption is the report by Bosnian MP Milica Markovic, who wrote that Armenia keeps the Azerbaijanis living in the border waterless. This is a piece of truth everyone can check. And if Azerbaijan was forced to make a gesture for some European MP to confirm this obvious fact, who is the culprit then? The MP, who wants black caviar for saying the snow she sees is “white”, or Azerbaijan, who treats the European to some caviar, keeping the interests of the waterless population at heart?

The situation changes completely then. And we should pose the question differently: Why do European MPs do not accept the obvious facts and why does Azerbaijan have to resort to making certain tokens to them? Of course, if the case even happened… Who is the corrupt in that case?

OK, enough about that. If there are truly traces of corruption in several documents, adopted in favor of Azerbaijan’s interests, then why is there no mention about documents in Armenian favor? Why don’t they talk about the famous “cognac diplomacy” the Armenian lobby has been successfully carrying out in all European political structures for a long time? If one has the patience and time to look into this so-called anti-corruption research, there is no doubt that they will discover the “cognac diplomacy”, or the Armenian lobby in a wider sense, behind all of it.

This is how the document describes one of “dubious” moments: ‘When PACE discusses issues on Azerbaijan, more MPs turn up for voting than usual. Even those, who rarely participate in the meetings, come to vote and in Azerbaijan’s favor.’ I mean look at the absurdity. PACE cannot keep its own MPs in line and cannot get them to attend regularly and when those MPs actually do come to vote, it is deemed corruption!

Overall, what kind of resolutions has PACE adopted in Azerbaijan’s favor? These are usually resolutions and recommendations on the Karabakh conflict and the state of refugees. They are all in the spirit of the UN resolutions and reflect the real situation. If Azerbaijan has really had to resort to certain tokens of attention for the PACE MPs to speak the reality, this only shows the fact That PACE is drowning in corruption, not us. Because normally, those MPs have to speak the truth and show those facts without wanting any gifts and stuff. And Azerbaijan would not have to worry; we would be certain that the honest MPs of Europe would speak that truth inspired by their own honors. But if the European parliamentarians speak inspired by their greed, not honor, whose problems should that be? And we should start to seriously think what are the rules of the game, played at an institution, a gathering of politicians whose words are inspired by their pockets and not their honor and whether we do really need that game.

Translated by Leyla Orujova

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