Tuesday, March 6, 2007
CIVIL SOCIETY

AZERBAIJAN: EX-MINISTER’S TRIAL CREATES POLITICAL SENSATION
Rovshan Ismayilov 3/06/07

The trial of former Azerbaijani Health Minister Ali Insanov, one of the
founders of the country’s ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party, is promising to
disrupt the political calm that has prevailed in this energy-rich South
Caucasus state since its 2005 parliamentary elections.

>From its start on February 15, Insanov’s trial has magnetized the
public, and made daily headlines. The 61-year-old former minister played
an active role in the 1993 return to power of the late President Heydar
Aliyev, father of Azerbaijan’s current leader, Ilham Aliyev, and was
once considered one of Azerbaijan’s most influential cabinet members. He
was arrested on the eve of the 2005 parliamentary vote, and, along with
former Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev and a few other
high-level officials, charged with corruption and a coup attempt against
President Aliyev. [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

At the time, many ordinary Azerbaijanis welcomed the arrest. During 12
years as minister of health, Insanov’s name had become largely
synonymous with pervasive corruption in the country’s healthcare
system.

Yet in putting Insanov on trial, prosecutors may end up getting more
than they bargained for. In a string of enraged statements, the former
minister has announced that he is joining the opposition, and threatened
to reveal details about government corruption.

"All charges against me are faked. Ali Insanov is a political prisoner
and nobody can deny it," he fumed at his opening trial, local media
reported. Insanov claims that his criticism of government policy, and
speeches about low living standards that he allegedly delivered at YAP
meetings alone prompted his arrest. Prosecution charges that he is
guilty of misappropriating some $3.5 billion from healthcare system
privatizations are "nonsense," he contends.

"How is it possible to steal $3.5 billion only in the healthcare system
while the entire privatization [process] in Azerbaijan, according to
official data, amounts to about $500 million?" Insanov quizzed
prosecutors on February 21. The former minister did not deny that his
relatives had enjoyed a "green light" for such privatization tenders,
but asserted that all members of the government had acted similarly.
"Each minister had his own sector where their relatives had all the
benefits," he said. "I am accused of misappropriation, but I have no
yachts, private airplanes, industrial facilities and big farms as other
government members do."

In response, Insanov, who has compared his prison term with the 27 years
spent in jail by Nobel Prize-winning anti-apartheid activist and former
South African President Nelson Mandela, has announced that he is setting
up his own opposition party, and threatened the court with "more
personal" exposés of official corruption.

"The authorities said they want to have a real opposition in the
country," he raged on February 28. "Now they have it!"

For now, though, the ruling Yeni Azerbaijan Party and government are
giving little public sign of unease with Insanov’s threats.

"What has the opposition achieved so far? I do not think that Insanov’s
transfer to the opposition would change anything," commented YAP Deputy
Executive Secretary and parliamentarian Mubariz Gurbanly in an interview
with EurasiaNet. Gurbanly denied that Insanov had ever once criticized
YAP policies during ten years of high-level party meetings. A February
16 press statement from YAP dismissed Insanov’s statements as "political
blackmail and slander."

Opposition media and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty correspondents,
however, were blocked from several of Insanov’s trial sessions, although
the ban was later lifted. Both the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe and the United States embassy in Baku are daily
monitoring the trial.

Meanwhile, leaders of Azerbaijan’s main oppsition parties have stated
that they accept apologies from Insanov issued to opposition Musavat
Party Chairman Isa Gambar, former Democratic Party of Azerbaijan
Chairman Rasul Guliyev and opposition Yeni Musavat newspaper
editor-in-chief Rauf Arifoglu, and say that they are ready to cooperate
with him.

But some analysts question the benefits Insanov could bring to
Azerbaijan’s relatively weak opposition. "Why should we believe that Ali
Insanov will be more successful than, for example, [former parliamentary
speaker and current exiled head] of the opposition Democratic Party of
Azerbaijan] Rasul Guliyev?" asked Baku-based independent political
analyst Rasim Musabeyov. "Everybody knows about his [Insanov’s]
involvement in corruption."

One former high-level official disagrees, however. By denouncing the
government so publicly, Insanov has given a signal to officials who,
like the former minister, come from Armenia, and may still look on him
as the regional group’s "unofficial leader", argued Eldar Namazov, a
former aide to the late President Heydar Aliyev and former head of the
opposition election alliance YeS.

"Regionalism is a serious factor in Azerbaijani politics," Namazov said.
"If people originally from Armenia will be active in [Insanov’s] party
at the [presidential] elections in 2008, for the first time since 1993
we will have a situation when this regional group [from Armenia] will
support the opposition." Azerbaijanis from Armenia, known as Yez-Ar, are
among the most active groups in the country’s political life. Among
their number are Parliamentary Speaker Ogtay Asadov and Prime Minister
Artur Rasizade.

Analyst Musabeyov and Zafar Guliyev, an analyst with the pro-opposition
Turan Analytical Group, disagree with Namazov, however.

"The regional factor is important in Azerbaijani politics, but we should
not exaggerate the consolidation of this regional group," said
Musabeyov. "We cannot say that the entire group is centered around Ali
Insanov."

Basing Insanov’s planned opposition party around a regional association
would be "a mistake," added Guliyev. "It will be very difficult to
change power in Azerbaijan only by using the support of a regional
clan," he said. "The factor of social discontent in Azerbaijan is much
more important. But it is still a question whether the ex-minister will
be able to use this factor properly."

So far, public displays of support for Insanov have been relatively
limited.

At a February 19 press conference in Baku, Rizvan Talibov, leader of the
Movement for Return to Western Azerbaijan, a group of Yer-Az, demanded
the minister’s release and pledged to start demonstrations "as soon as
Insanov gives us the signal." A group of doctors who call themselves the
ex-minister’s "followers" and former colleagues have also appealed to
President Aliyev to release Insanov.

The muted public response, however, is unlikely to faze or quiet the
embittered ex-health minister. As he warned prosecutors at his February
28 trial: "[I]t is not a good idea to make Insanov angry."

Editor’s Note: Rovshan Ismayilov is a freelance reporter based in Baku.

Posted March 6, 2007 © Eurasianet
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