(MENAFN- AzerNews)
By Farman Aydin, AzerNEWS
The autumn session of PACE continues, and this time again the
members of the assembly did not lag behind each other in exhibiting
a biased position against Azerbaijan.
Among them is Gabrielius Landsbergis, the current chairman of
the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania. At the PACE session in Strasbourg,
Landsbergis, who tried to express his views against Azerbaijan,
forgot to talk about himself and the country he represents.
First of all, it is necessary to advise Landsbergis, who aspires
to be the leader of his country, that it is not acceptable both
politically and ethically to speak behind a country that is not
participating in the session. However, this step of his seems to
indicate his political illiteracy.
Lithuanian MFA tries to criticize the country while talking
about democracy and transparency in Azerbaijan. However, he is not
aware that his country has become a vassal of Europe today. Yes,
today, Lithuania is a de facto vassal state, and it bases its
policy only on instructions and orders from the West.
That is why Lithuania is active in the campaign of pressure and
blackmail from the West against Azerbaijan.
In addition, since Landsbergis himself is ambitious for the
leadership of Lithuania, he unconditionally fulfils the orders of
the West. But he is not even suitable for the level of the Minister
of Foreign Affairs. For example, his participation in the
opposition's protest in Tbilisi and the official Tbilisi's
objection to Lithuania in this regard show how incompetent
Landsbergis is in diplomacy. Undoubtedly, such behaviour of the
person who heads the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is against all
diplomatic rules. And today, unfortunately, such a person is trying
to teach Azerbaijan a "democracy lesson" from Strasbourg.
By carrying out the order of the West, Landsbergis actually
destroys Lithuanian-Azerbaijani relations.
Growing Slavophobia and Islamophobia in the
country
It is ridiculous that Lithuania's foreign minister should teach
others, because Lithuania itself is a vassal state with formal
sovereignty and high levels of anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and
Slavophobia.
Anti-Semitism - The crimes committed by the Lithuanian fascists
during World War II were surprising even in the German Waffen-SS
groups. Even today, anti-Semitic sentiments are on the rise in
Lithuania.
A part of the country's population, ethnic Russians, are not
considered citizens. If the anti-Slavic spirit existed before the
Ukrainian-Russian war, after the war it has already become a trend.
A recent poll indicates more hostile attitudes towards the local
Russian-speaking population. The share of respondents who say they
do not want to live next door to Russians has grown from 6.2
percent last year to 16 percent now. Moreover, 74.6 percent say
that their attitudes towards local Russians have worsened over the
last five years. Vida Montvydaitė, head of the government's
Department for Ethnic Minorities, considers the trend disturbing
and even dangerous.
“These trends are of course regrettable, alarming and even
dangerous,” she tells LRT, Lithuania's local media outlet.
However, because of the war between the two countries, it is
considered an inadequate and inhumane step to blame the civilian
population and create discrimination on national grounds.
Lithuania also competes with other European countries in its
anti-Islam stance.
Although the Muslim community has been trying to build a mosque
in Vilnius for several years now, the authorities do not allow it,
and Muslims have to gather in ordinary apartments.
The public opinion polls conducted by the Ethnic Studies
Institute in 2016 and 2017 show that Lithuanians' opinion of
Muslims has recently worsened.
More than 40% of people would not want to live in the same
neighbourhood with believers of Islam or rent them housing.
Today, in fact, Azerbaijan should raise the issue of
Islamophobia in Lithuania from the highest tribunes, as it is going
to surpass the most Islamophobic countries in Europe.
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