REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, DAMASCUS -- Foreign and Expatriates Ministry denounced Saturday the European Union's statement on Syria's recent presidential election as a flagrant violation of the international law that provides for respecting the countries' sovereignty and non-interference in their internal affairs.

Even before the presidential voting took place, the EU Commissioner for External Affairs Catherine Ashton described in a statement the election as "illegitimate", anticipating the results in advance.

She tried to get around the Syrian people's will by calling to resume "negotiations" away from the ballot boxes.

While claiming that Syria's elections would affect the political efforts to find a solution to the crisis in the country, Ashton stopped short of referring to the violations committed by a number of countries banning a Syrian vote on their territories.

"This position [of the EU] sits at odds with the simplest democratic rules and respecting the people's right to choose their leadership and draw their future through the ballot boxes," the Ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

It affirmed that "real legitimacy draws exclusively from the popular will and not from this or that country."

The statement stressed on the high voter turnout at home and abroad as the most telling evidence of this public-bestowed legitimacy and "the credibility of the electoral process," which was further confirmed by the foreign delegations that observed the voting.

It dismissed the countries which participated in the shedding of the Syrians' blood and have incessantly worked to thwart the political process as "the last ones who can talk about caring for the Syrian people."

The Foreign Ministry concluded its statement by hailing the valor with which the Syrians have confronted the global war for over three years, and which "has stunned the world."

It also applauded the massive turnout of voters to the ballot boxes, stressing that "the others have but to realize that there is no room from now on for any form of colonialism, tutelage or hegemony."

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