RASUL GULIYEV RETURNS TO BAKU
By Tatoul Hakobian

AZG Armenian Daily #187
18/10/2005

He Is Charged With Appropriating $100, Selling Petrol To Armenians
During Karabakh War and Cooperating With Pro-Armenian Forces

One of Nakhijevan clan members, former Azerbaijani parliament
speaker Rasul Guliyev was due to return home from the United States
on London-Baku charter flight yesterday night. Late Heydar Aliyev
and Guliyev were in good relations before 1995 until the speaker of
the parliament embarked on forming his own team within the clan to
counter the Aliyevs in fight for presidency.

In his message to the Azeri society, Guliyev, who spearheads
oppositional Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, said that he does to
cause bloodshed by his return. “It is possible that there will
be disturbances at the airport on October 17. We have operative
information about imminent provocation including an assault on the
airport,” Ramil Usubov, interior minister of Azerbaijan, said. Usubov
called for the representatives of diplomatic missions and journalists
to stay away from the airport, as “clashes are probable.”

Yasar Aliyev, deputy head of Baku police, was quoted by the Azeri
press as saying that nobody will be allowed to enter the area of
Heydar Aliyev International Airport to meet Rasul Guliyev. Zakir
Garalov, head prosecutor of Azerbaijan, stated that a special cell
of European standards was prepared for Guliyev.

According to RFERL, Guliyev is returning to secure democratic
parliamentary elections on November 6. He had announced earlier that
he will return to Baku in company of US congressmen and a group of
journalists. Rasul Guliyev is charged with appropriating more than $100
million from the state budget, selling petrol to the Armenians during
the Nagorno Karabakh war and supporting pro-Armenian forces in America.

In the face of the upcoming parliamentary elections the Azeri
authorities emphasize the “fact” of the cooperation of the country’s
opposition and Armenian special services but not the Karabakh
issue. Sill in August 3, the police arrested Ruslan Basirli, leader of
Yeni Fikir oppositional party on charge of a coup attempt organized
in concert with non-governmental American organizations and Armenian
special services. During the last weeks Ramin Tagiyev and Sayid Nuri,
the same party’s leaders were also arrested.

President Ilham Aliyev’s assessment of the pre-election situation
is as follows, “Wonderful conditions have been created for the
elections.” The international organizations hold to other views. In
its report on pre-electoral Azerbaijan, the Human Rights Watch called
on the Western governments to adopt a tougher line in regard to the
violence in Azerbaijan.

The report also writes that the growing violence that the opposition
activists face from the hands of law-enforcers “casts doubt
on government’s obligation to hold free and just parliamentary
elections.” The report says that the US and EU should “condemn the
violence in pre-election campaign forestalling further aggravation.”

As it is known, the police quelled three last rallies by Azadleg Union
beating tens of participants and detaining hundreds. The head of the
PACE stated in Baku last week that Azerbaijan has not fulfilled the
proposals of the PACE to hold free and just elections.