Speaker accuses Georgian leader of reneging on promise made to ethnic Azeris

Zaman, Baku
9 Dec 04

Excerpt from Aziz Mustafa’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Zaman on 9
December headlined “Relations with Georgia turn sour”, subheaded “The
reason is that President Saakashvili does not keep his promise to our
compatriots living in this country made in the run-up to the
elections”

Our compatriots submitted their demands to the Georgian government
yesterday [8 December]. They demanded that the person who killed our
compatriot [67-year-old Hilal Idrisova] during the recent events [in
Marneuli District] be arrested within the next 24 hours and that
[Georgian] President Mikheil Saakashvili issues a decree giving land
to our compatriots to be declared on TV. Our compatriots said that
otherwise they will march to Tbilisi.

[Passage omitted: details of the incident]

The Azerbaijani parliament also expressed concern about the recent
developments in Georgia. Speaker Murtuz Alasgarov could not conceal
his concern about the developments at the last parliamentary
session. He said that Saakashvili reneged on a promise made in the
run-up to the elections to provide the Azerbaijanis with plots of
lands. However, he has taken appropriate measures to provide Armenians
with land.

Alasgarov said that Saakashvili discriminated against our compatriots
in favou r of the Armenians.

This is a very serious accusation. Alasgarov’s accusations did not end
there. He also recalled that the Azerbaijanis living in this country
had not been involved in the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline and described this as inadmissible. The speaker stressed
that the Georgian budget depends on the income to be gained from the
oil pipeline. Having stressed this, he gave a specific warning to the
neighbouring country. He promised to phone the Georgian parliament’s
leadership to discuss the issue.

Commenting on the issue, the Georgian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Zurab
Gumberidze, said the developments were being investigated
officially. However, judging by the course of events it will not be
easy at all to avoid some misunderstanding between the two countries.

[In an interview with Xalq Cabhasi newspaper, the deputy chairman of
United People’s Front of Azerbaijan Party, Elcin Mirzabayli, called on
the Azerbaijani government to appeal to international bodies and the
UN over the issue]