US democracy group distances self from alleged coup plot in Azerbaijan

Agence France Presse — English
August 5, 2005 Friday 2:43 PM GMT

BAKU Aug 5 — A prominent US non-governmental organization on Friday
vehemently denied allegations that it was linked to an alleged plot
to overthrow the Azerbaijani government.

Azeri prosecutors announced Thursday they had arrested the leader of
a youth group, saying he was plotting to launch a peaceful popular
revolution during parliamentary elections in November at the
instigation of the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

“The allegations that we are funding a revolution just aren’t true,”
NDI’s director for Azerbaijan, Christy Quirk told AFP.

In a statement the NDI said it cooperates with “all political parties”
to promote free and fair voting.

“All other allegations contradicting this position are not realistic,”
it said.

The organization, which has faced criticism from regimes in other
former Soviet republics accusing it of promoting revolutions that
swept Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan recently, did not mention any
specific allegations in its statement.

Prosecutors also alleged that Yeni Fikir youth opposition movement
leader Ruslan Bashirli allegedly accepted funds for a revolt from
operatives of Azerbaijan’s longtime foe Armenia.

Bashirli told the Armenians he represented forces “acting on the
instructions of the National Democratic Institute of the USA,” and
had received “specific instructions from representatives of this
organization to prepare a revolution in Azerbaijan,” according to a
prosecutors’ statement.

Yeni Fikir denies Bashirli is guilty of charges of attempting “to
take power by force,” adding that Bashirli made the comments about
NDI “because he was drunk and bragging,” according to Said Nuriyev,
a Bashirli deputy.

Yeni Fikir leaders claim the allegations are a government smear
campaign, and come amid increasing government pressure on opposition
political parties ahead of parliamentary elections in November.

Azerbijan fought and lost a bitter war with Armenia over the
ethinc-Armenian enclave of Nagorno Karabakh in the early 1990s and
emotions on both sides still run high.

Within Azerbaijan tensions between the opposition and the authorities
have been on the rise in Azerbaijan ahead of the parliamentary vote.

Azerbaijan’s previous national vote, which saw Ilham Aliyev take
the country’s top post from his ailing father Heydar Aliyev in 2003,
ended in two days of rioting and hundreds of arrests.

Arrests of the opposition continued throughout this year, notably
in May, when police arrested and beat dozens of protestors at an
unsanctioned rally in Baku.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress