MP from ruling party proposes to shut down Western embassies in Azerbaijan

MP Elman Mammadov

Every single day Azeri officials should enlighten and entertain us with some witty comments, it seems. Their unofficial prerogative.

After one pro-government MP recently proposed to close down “Facebourg”, we thought we reached the limits of absurd, but now we were forced to doubt it again.

MP Elman Mammadov from ruling New Azerbaijan Party representing a Nagorno-Karabakh district in Azerbaijan’s rubber-stamp Parliament dropped another bomb today – he simply proposed to shut down OSCE, National Democratic Institute and Western embassies in Azerbaijan for “they regularly interfere into Azerbaijan’s internal affairs, organize riots, finance and instruct radical destructive forces.”

Elman Mammadov simply jumped into the bandwagon of a huge government-initiated campaign against independent youth groups that is ongoing in Azerbaijan these days. State controlled TVs and media, as well as top government officials are making fuss over alleged “Facebook revolution” that NDI was planning to make through different youth groups.

7 members of NIDA Civic Movement are currently in pre-trial detention for alleged possession of drugs, firearms and Molotov cocktails. The government and its allies claim that USA gave 2 million dollars to different youth groups, mainly NIDA to organize a revolution in Azerbaijan.

They really believe in this, no kidding.