There are many historical examples when the international community directly contributed to creating a democracy in a country. A vivid example is the Marshall Plan, which encouraged the establishment of democratic regimes in Western Europe and Japan. This example is especially apt and effective because economic assistance was directly linked to political transformations. However, one must ac with extreme caution and consistence, since unfair discriminatory measures may negatively affect a democratic process. Such an example is US Congressional Amendment 907, which prohibits financing Azerbaijan on the national level, charging it with aggression – when 20 percent of Azerbaijan territory is occupied by Armenia, and a million Azerbaijani refugees have for years been without shelter and means of subsistence.
There is a country called Azerbaijan, whose people can and want to be reliable partners. The descendants of those who, tens of thousands years ago, left unique carvings in Gobustan Caves; the descendants of Nizami and Fizuli; the children and grandchildren of the intelligentsia who fought the Russian Empire at the turn of the century; and, finally, those who, fighting the Soviet Empire, made sacrifices in the bloody events of January 1990 – they have earned their right to live in a free democratic society and build a common civilization alongside other free nations.
I call upon you not to remain, once again, indifferent to the fate of the nations who are deprived of their rights and are suffering under totalitarian regimes.
Finally, I wish ardently that, having touched the fate of my people, you will raise your voice in defense of your rights and decency, of your historical future irrevocably linked to democracy and human progress. For as Churchill said wisely:
Laws, just or unjust, may govern men’s actions. Tyrannies may restrain or regulate their words. The machinery for propaganda may pack their minds with falsehood… But the soul of man thus held in trance or frozen in a long night can be awakened by a spark coming from God know where.
From “Path to Democracy“ (published in 1997)
Hələlik heç bir şərh yoxdur... İlk cavab yazan siz olun!