Interfax: European political forces tend to become radical – Dolgov

Map of Western CIS/FSU and European Environs

YEREVAN. Oct 23 (Interfax) – Russia is calling on the world community to work together on resolving issues in the sphere of human rights protection, Russian Foreign Ministry envoy on human rights, democracy, and supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov said.

“At the conference on the prevention of discrimination, xenophobia, and intolerance in Europe held in Yerevan, we called on our partners to work together seriously. We want normal, civilized international cooperation, including in the Council of Europe, on issues relating to human rights protection,” Dolgov said while meeting with the Russian media in Yerevan on Wednesday.

“We want cooperation without double standards, without hiding the real problems,” he said.

No conference participants except for the Russian representative addressed the situation involving the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic states, specifically, in Latvia and Estonia, Dolgov said.

“No one said a word about the discrimination against the Russian-speaking population in the Baltics, both based on language and the issue of non-citizenship. Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks said the most vulnerable minority in Europe are Gypsies (or the Roma people). But it’s not so because thousands of Russian-speaking residents of Latvia and Estonia still have no citizenship and virtually nothing is being done, in spite of all the recommendations issued by international organizations,” Dolgov said.

Dolgov said that conference participants only agreed with Russia’s viewpoint in unofficial conversations at the conference, “but preferred not speak about it in public for reasons of political correctness. “We believe this political correctness is dangerous because it keeps us from seeing and developing ways of resolving real problems,” he said.

Dolgov said Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muiznieks had extremely dangerous tendencies associated with racism, xenophobia, and intolerance, including rhetoric and statements that fan feuds and are reaching a critical mass in Europe.

“I personally believe there is a dangerous radicalization of political forces going on in Europe. Extremist parties and movements are gaining power. The party Jobbik in Hungary was mentioned directly. In many European countries, left-radical, extremist parties, and anti-Semitic parties have made their way into parliaments or are among the most popular and numerous,” Dolgov said.

Dolgov said the conference had addressed issued relating to migrants, Gypsies, and sexual minorities.

“However, besides the Russian representative, the problem of neo-Nazism, which is now a critical issue in Europe, was only mentioned by Jagland, who mentioned it only briefly as one of the challenges along with challenges facing minorities, including LGBT. That is, they are replacing concepts again, they are trying to hide the real problems, which does not promote a collective analysis of the situation and a joint development of ways to resolve existing problems,” he said.

Dolgov also said the conference participants had not offered enough ways of resolving problems addressed there. “Few things were said about that,” he said.

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