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“I fully support the peace talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan. As far as the “Peace Platform” is concerned, I have no concrete information about it. Such a platform must be established on the basis of real civil society organizations, genuine will and interests.  In this case the imitation is irrelevant,” Anar Mammadli, famous Azerbaijani human rights activists and winner of Václav Havel Human Rights Prize 2014 of the PACE, told the correspondent of Panorama.am in Strasbourg, replying to the question regarding his opinion on the fake “Armenia-Azerbaijan Peace Platform”, which involves a few recruited Armenians.

Asked whether the platform made of genuine civil society organizations can contribute to the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Anar Mammadli noted that it is abstract, and in fact, it can be guaranteed in case a dialogue is established between the real civil society and the government.

“In case I have no guarantees to conduct activities in my country, no matter what it is – peace talks, human rights or election observation – we will not interfere with any process. In my opinion, amid such a political and legal environment it is very difficult to launch such an initiative. Firstly, it is highly important to establish a dialogue between the civil society organizations and the government,” Mammadli said.

Asked whether it is possible to begin with the lower level of the society, preparing people for a peaceful settlement, Mammadli said that unfortunately the situation over these issues is very complicated in Azerbaijan, as being independent and dissident in Azerbaijan, one can easily be targeted by a blackmail campaign, being called a pro-Armenian and an enemy to the nation.

“I believe that the real peace process can exist only in case of a stable inner dialogue between the government and the civil society. If we are not able to voice our concerns on the television or at the meeting with the government, how can we talk about out foreign affairs or the foreign dialogue? I find this unrealistic. I repeatedly state that it is hard to make any achievement without a democratically elected parliament, since in case there is no national representation and voices in the parliament, how is it possible to initiate any peace agreement and concession? These are highly serious steps, and to take them it is important to have an inner democracy, I think,” Mammadli noted.

Asked how he can explain the fact that the Azerbaijani authorities often link the poor state of the human rights and civil society in the country with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and whether it is simply an excuse, the Azerbaijani human rights activist noted that numerous organizations have operated in Azerbaijan for a long time, having performed serious activities regarding the issues of the refuges and the deported people. However, as a result of the recent persecutions, they have stopped their activities as well.  Anar Mammadli said that ‘yes, that ‘excuse’ is used by some officials, however it is not a normal and grounded explanation.’

To note, Anar Mammadli founded and headed Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre (EMDS).

Since 2001, the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre conducted election observation in Azerbaijan. The centre also observed the 2013 Azerbaijani presidential elections, criticising it. As a result, Mammadli was arrested in December 2013. The Azerbaijani authorities charged him with the ‘abuse of power’ and several other articles, sentencing him to five and a half years in prison in May 2014. Due to the international pressure, Mammadli was granted a pardon by the president and released on 17 March 2016.