(AP) – Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry on Nov. 7 criticized the deportation of Ukrainian election observers from Azerbaijan and demanded an explanation.
“This incident creates a hostile atmosphere for the development of friendly bilateral relations between Ukraine and Azerbaijan,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
Sixteen Ukrainians who traveled to Azerbaijan to monitor its parliamentary elections were barred from the country and sent home Nov. 6, the day of the vote. The would-be observers said they were told at the airport in the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, that they were not wanted.
Two of those turned away said they had been invited by an Azerbaijan opposition leader to observe the election and were travelling unofficially.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called on Azerbaijan to determine what happened and explain.
Serhiy Taran, one of the Ukrainians who was barred and had been invited by the opposition, expressed his concern Nov. 7 over alleged violations reported by international observers in Azerbaijan. The Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe said the Nov. 6 failed to meet standards for democratic elections.
“Tough administrative pressure, muzzling of the press, unequal access to the media – all that called to mind Ukraine a year ago,” Taran, who heads the Kyiv-based Institute of Mass Information, a media watchdog, told reporters in Kyiv. He was referring to last year’s fraud-marred presidential election in Ukraine which triggered the Orange Revolution protests.
Fears are high in Azerbaijan that the opposition, which has claimed the vote was rigged, will try to emulate the Orange Revolution, which helped cancel the fraud-marred vote here and ushered then-opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko into power.
“Ukrainians are considered in Azerbaijan as bearers of a democracy virus,” said Yevhen Zolotariov, a leader of Pora, a youth movement that was one of the main organizers of the Ukrainian protests. Zolotariov was also among those who were deported.
Taran and Zolotariov said they had been invited to observe the vote by Isa Gambar, head of the Azerbaijan opposition party, Musavat. They had tried to register as official observers, but were refused so were traveling to Baku unofficially.
Taran said that the 14 other Ukrainians had no link to him, and they identified themselves as members of the CIS election mission.
