Novruz Mammadov

BAKU—President Ilham Aliyev’s chief foreign policy advisor Novruz Mammadov blasted Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for a message she circulated to mark International Human Rights Day.

In the statement, Clinton lamented continued violence against those who exercise their right to freedom of expression and said: “From Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, political prisoners still languish in jail for speaking, writing or advocating peacefully for their beliefs.”

Mammadov, known for his temperamental declarations, said “those who wrote Secretary of State’s remarks,” were confused about their knowledge of the English alphabet, insisting that Armenia comes before Azerbaijan in alphabetical order.

“Maybe those who wrote State Secretary’s statement relied on the logic of the English alphabet, referring to Azerbaijan along with Zimbabwe (first and last letters of the alphabet). However, either they did not learn it properly (at least, according to the alphabetical order Armenia comes before Azerbaijan), or we are again dealing with double standards in the US foreign policy,” Mammadov said.

“If this is indeed an important issue for the United States, then why does the same State Department keep silent on the issue of infringement of rights of one million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced persons, evicted from their lands as a result of illegal, armed aggression by the Armenian side? Why does no one make a serious statement on the matter?” said Mammadov.

Relying on the same logic, Mammadov went on to say that the US had “an unnatural love for Armenia.”

“One gets the impression that the US has some serious commitment to the Armenian Diaspora, which makes both media organizations and officials to voice negative evaluations solely about Azerbaijan while making only positive remarks about Armenia,” explained Mammadov.