Azeri authorities “disunited” in run-up to polls – opposition daily

Azadliq, Baku
15 Jun 05

The Azerbaijani authorities are fragmented and are unlikely to agree
on joint candidates during the November parliamentary elections, the
opposition daily Azadliq has reported. The newspaper listed several
groups within the authorities saying that they will strive for seats
in parliament. This situation “does not bode well for the
authorities”, the report said. The following is the text of Sucaddin
Sarifov report by Azerbaijani newspaper Azadliq on 15 June headlined
“The authorities are disunited ahead of the elections” and subheaded
“The lack of will and infighting between various groups casts doubts
on the joint list of the authorities’ candidates”. Subheadings as
published:

The November parliamentary elections do not bode well for the
government. In terms of many factors related to the elections, they
are quite different from the previous elections.

The opposition has already fulfilled one of the conditions deemed
necessary for succeeding in the elections. The People’s Front of
Azerbaijan Party [PFAP], the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan [DPA] and
the Musavat Party – all publicly and internationally recognized as
the major opposition parties – have set up the Azadliq bloc. The
majority of the public supports the bloc and the three parties will
put forward joint candidates in the elections.

Another important condition for ensuring that the elections are
democratic was to attract the attention of the international
community to the elections. The situation in this regard is also
drastically different from what was the case several years ago.
Serious international reaction to the authorities’ violence against
peaceful demonstrators on 21 May showed that attention to Azerbaijan
has soared compared with previous years.

Another advantages of the opposition is that there is a rather weak
and spineless leader at the helm of the authorities and this casts
doubts on the authorities’ ability to run joint candidates in the
elections. The first signs that the authorities will be disunited
during the elections can already be seen. The current situation gives
grounds to say that it is difficult not only for the authorities as a
whole, but even for the ruling New Azerbaijan Party [NAP] to run
joint candidates. This is being openly admitted.

In a recent interview with a newspaper, the executive secretary of
the NAP, Ali Ahmadov, pointed out that there were some problems with
the NAP putting forward a list of candidates for the elections. He
did not rule out that there may be several NAP candidates from one
precinct and hoped that the voting would resolve the ensuing
problems. It must also be noted that there are many ambitious groups
which back the government and pin their hopes on the levers available
to the authorities.

Ramiz Mehdiyev’s group

One of such groups comprises people who are backed by the head of the
presidential administration, Ramiz Mehdiyev. Most of people in this
group have set up election blocs in accordance with the spheres in
which they work. One of the reasons why these people will run
separate blocs in the elections is to create the impression of
diversity in the future parliament.

The leader of the group, Ramiz Mehdiyev, controls most of the
government bodies, including the NAP. There are few districts in
Azerbaijan in which the head of the district executive authorities or
the local NAP boss is not known for being close to Mehdiyev.

Group of Aliyev and the Pasayevs

Another group determined to get the majority of the seats in
parliament is the one led by [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev and
the Pasayevs [relatives of the president’s wife]. Although Aliyev is
formally the head of state, it is unlikely that all the candidates of
the authorities will be chosen on the basis of his wishes. Probably,
the president will have to reckon with the major powers within the
authorities. However, this does not mean that Ilham Aliyev, his wife
Mehriban Aliyeva, who has started to exert serious influence on
political processes, and her father Arif Pasayev will remain mere
onlookers. According to incoming reports, the people in question are
determined to secure seats for themselves in parliament and are also
preparing to run their own candidates in the elections. Admittedly,
this group, too, is capable of exerting serious influence on the
processes within the authorities and will try to get the results they
want from the elections.

Group of western Azerbaijanis

The third force, which does not lag behind the first two neither in
terms of resources, nor in terms of ambitions, is the grouping of
western Azerbaijanis. It is led by Azerbaijani state officials who
were born in western Azerbaijan [Armenia]. The group is currently
under serious attack from Mehdiyev.

It seems that this group, too, has chosen taking control of the
parliament as a means of defending and maintaining its positions
within the authorities. The group enjoys major support in both the
NAP and districts, although it lags behind Ramiz Mehdiyev in this
regard.

Group of ministers with special status

There are several ministers within the government who have special
status. It appears that they, too, are seriously interested in the
elections. [Minister of Economic Development] Farhad Aliyev,
[Transport Minister] Ziya Mammadov, [MP and Ilham Aliyev’s uncle]
Calal Aliyev and [Chairman of the State Customs Committee] Kamaladdin
Heydarov are among them. There are reports that these people will
support certain candidates in the elections. They will not run a
candidate in each precinct, but their candidates will have enough
resources to carry out a major election campaign.

Group of government supporters

In addition to the groups mentioned above, there are numerous
pro-government parties which back the position of the government.
They, too, want to be represented in parliament and hope for help
from the government during the elections. In turn, the government
needs to support them to create an impression of multiparty elections
and to reward them for being pro-government.

In such a situation and with four months left till the elections, it
looks improbable that the groupings within the authorities will reach
a consensus. Ilham Aliyev’s will is not strong enough, nor does the
bitterness of rivalry between the groupings allow that.

What awaits the authorities?

This situation does not bode well for the authorities because it is
unlikely that Ilham Aliyev will be able to put one of the groupings
within the authorities in its place. Nobody would like to see a group
wielding reasonable financial resources opposing him in the run-up to
the elections. Aliyev may, as Ali Ahmadov said, let the elections
decide the outcome. This will divide the votes cast for the
authorities, who have already fallen into disrepute, and will
reinforce the fight between the groupings within the authorities.

Ilham Aliyev has limited capability to change the situation. It seems
that this is the main reason why Ilham Aliyev rejected proposals to
change the composition of electoral commissions. It is because he
hopes that the elections will be rigged.

ARMENIA ELECTED 60-TH UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION VICE CHAIR

Pan Armenian News
15.06.2005 06:22

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ June 13 Armenia was elected vice chair of the 60-th
session of the UN General Assembly, RA MFA press center reported. The
session will start September 14. In the person of RA Ambassador to
the UN Armen Martirosian Armenia will take part in the work of the
General Committee, which is in charge for the GA activities including
the discussion of the agenda and submission of proposals.

CHANGE OF IRANIAN PRESIDENT NOT TO AFFECT ARMENIAN-IRANIAN RELATIONS

Pan Armenian News
15.06.2005 05:06

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Head of the presidential administration, Co-Chair
of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental commission Artashes
Tumanian met today in Yerevan with Iranian Minister of Education
Morteza Haji , RA President~Rs press center reported. During
the meeting the parties expressed satisfaction with the present
level of the Iranian-Armenian relations noted the necessity of
developing them in new directions. They also discussed cooperation
in educational, scientific and social fields noting the importance
of taking the advantages of the Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental
commission. Artashes Tumanian pointed out to the strengthening of the
Armenian-Iranian intergovernmental ties and discussed the possibility
of opening the Armenian Consulate in Tebriz. When touching upon the
upcoming presidential election in Iran, Morteza Haji assured that with
victory of any presidential contender the Iranian-Armenian relations
will undergo no other changes but positive.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
13 June 05

On June 8th, the speaker of the National Assembly of NKR gave a press
conference as the term of the parliament is coming to its end. The
subject of the press conference was the summary of five years work of
the National Assembly. The present parliament is multi-party. Among
the members of parliament there are members of the Democratic Union
Artsakh, Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Artsakh Armenakan, the
social democrats, as well as independent parliamentarians. Of the 33
members of parliament 32 have higher education, four are candidates
of sciences, 2 are female. The age at the time of election was 40
– 44. There are six standing committees, as well as ad hoc
committees on issues concerning different spheres were set up and
operated. There are two parliamentary factions: Democratic Party of
Artsakh (former Democratic Union Artsakh) which had 21 and currently
has 19 members, and ARF which had 9 and currently has 8 members. The
National Assembly has a presidium, comprising the speaker of the
National Assembly, the vice speaker, the chairmen of the standing
committees and the directors of the parliamentary factions. Fourteen
members of parliament work on a permanent basis. Two years ago the
Audit Chamber was established, the chairman and the vice chairman of
which are members of parliament. “I cannot grade the work of the
parliament as excellent but you can assert yourselves that there are
many achievements beside the things the parliament failed to do. The
important thing is that the work of this parliament is several steps
ahead the previous parliament; there should be a tendency and a
tradition that every parliament should go ahead the previous,”
said Speaker Oleg Yessayan. According to him, 300 meetings of
parliament have taken place, about 330 laws were adopted, plus the 10
bills to be discussed at the upcoming meeting. Of the mentioned bills
53 were undertaken by members of parliament. The speaker of the
National Assembly informed that the laws adopted by the third
parliament outnumber the laws adopted by the previous parliament and
are twice as much as the second parliament. Forty hearings on
different levels were held, allowing the members of parliament to
learn the opinions of not only the members of parliament and the
government but also experts. According to the speaker of the National
Assembly, the meetings of the parliament were not turned into
political shows but raised problems which worry the voters. The links
between the parliaments of Armenia and NKR and cooperation with other
countries has become closer. In this reference Oleg Yessayan regarded
the parliament as accomplished, and assessed the work of the
parliament positively. The adopted laws enabled to coordinate the
political and economic environment, introduce changes into the
non-governmental and social sectors. There are also open problems
which the government could not solve for objective and subjective
reasons. “We wish the next parliament do all that we failed to
do. Among the problems which have not been solved I would point out
the increase of the political role of the parliament and
parliamentary control. The parliament should be an independent body,
and I wish the next parliament to be such. But I insist that our
parliament was more independent than the previous one. That is to
say, everything is still in the stage of formation. Good luck to all
of us on this way,” he said. The journalists present were
interested to know the evaluation of the speaker of the election
campaign and his expectations from the next parliament. “We need
to have a better parliament than the previous. The previous
parliament provided conditions for this. A legislation was created,
we only have to make sure that the laws work.” Oleg Yessayan
explained his decision not to run for the parliament for another term
by considering his experience as a parliamentarian enough but he is
not going to retire from politics. “The parliament of Karabakh as
a state has a biography of 14 years, I have been a member of
parliament for 12 years, and speaker for 8 years. I consider that my
activity as a parliamentarian is enough, and I think there is point
in doing some other kind of work. Perhaps, there will be proposals,
and after thinking over them and making a decision I will give a
definite answer to your question,” mentioned Oleg Yessayan. Part
of the current members of parliament will run for the parliament for
another term. Oleg Yessayan does not see anything negative in this
because their experience may be useful for the new parliament. In the
end O. Yessayan thanked the journalists for cooperation, promising
new meetings and interviews when he in his new position.

SRBUHI VANIAN.
13-06-2005

OSKANIAN AND MAMEDYAROV TO MEET IN PARIS

Azat Artsakh – Nagorno Karabakh Republic [NKR]
13 June 05

On June 8th the foreign minister of Armenia Vardan Oskanian left for
Vienna to take part in the meeting of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs.
According to the department of press and information of the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, after the meeting with the co-chairs
the foreign minister of Armenia left for Washington for a two-day
visit. On June 11 – 14 the minister is visiting Peking where he
meets with the prime minister of China Ven Xia Bao and foreign
minister Lee Xiao Sin. On June 15th Vardan Oskanian will arrive in
London where he will deliver a speech on the Armenian Genocide at the
House of Lords. On June 16th and 17th V. Oskanian will be in Brussels
where at the meeting of NATO he will officially present the IPAP.
Then he will present the portfolio of the proposals of the Armenian
party of the Programme of Actions of Armenia. The last visit of the
foreign minister of Armenia will take place in Paris where he will
meet with the foreign minister of Azerbaijan E. Mamedyarov on June
18th in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. According to the
Azerbaijani mass media, the ministers will discuss the issues
outlined in the Prague meeting on January 11th, 2005. Some time ago
the vice foreign minister of Azerbaijan Araz Azimov said that the
previous meeting of the vice ministers was in the framework of the
stage by stage transformation of the conflict, which means returning
the regions under the control of the Armenian side to Azerbaijan, the
return of the Azerbaijani population, re-establishment of regional
relationships, decision on the status of Nagorno Karabakh. In his
turn, foreign minister E. Mamedyarov stated that allegedly Armenia is
willing to return the occupied 7 areas, which is a matter of time.
The foreign minister of Armenia denied this news, saying, “As to
the statements of the Azerbaijani side about returning the areas
controlled by the Armenian side, they do not correspond to the
reality.” In the meeting of the presidents of Armenia and
Azerbaijan in Warsaw, Vardan Oskanian stated that after this meeting
new opportunities have come about the public discussion of which may
cause misunderstanding and have a negative impact on the progress in
the talks. Nevertheless, as the foreign minister of Armenia stated,
currently the following issues feature in the talks: the status of
Nagorno Karabakh, the return of the areas adjacent to Nagorno
Karabakh, the return of the refugees, and security. These issues are
closely interrelated and, hopefully, the upcoming talk between
Oskanian and Mamedyarov will pass in this context.

CHRISTINE MNATSAKANIAN.
13-06-2005

Azeri security ministry sacks officers of Armenian origin – paper

525 Qazet, Baku
15 Jun 05

Text of I. Qasimli report by Azerbaijani newspaper 525 Qazet on 15
June headlined “Those who have Armenian relatives dismissed from the
National Security Ministry” and subheaded “A ministry official says
people of Armenian origin cannot work in the ministry”

Several employees of the National Security Ministry have been dismissed
on orders from Minister Eldar Mahmudov, an informed source has told
525 Qazet.

The employees were sacked because one of their parents or other close
relatives are of Armenian origin, the source said. There were officers
among the dismissed.

“This is Azerbaijan and people of Armenian origin and those who have
Armenian relatives cannot work at the National Security Ministry,”
Arif Babayev, head of the ministry’s public relations department,
said to explain the decision.

This purge is the first ever carried out in the ministry. Former
National Security Minister Namiq Abbasov admitted in one of his
interviews that there were people of Armenian origin among the ministry
employees, but said that he did not plan to sack them. Abbasov said
that this illustrated that there was no ethnic discrimination in
Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani minister in Moscow condemns Karabakh cease-fire violations

ITAR-TASS news agency
15 Jun 05

Moscow, 15 June: The Azeri leadership is concerned by repeated
violations of the cease-fire in the area of the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict, Azerbaijan’s deputy interior minister, the commander-in-chief
of the country’s Interior Ministry troops, Lt Gen Zakir Hasanov, told
journalists today. A delegation from the Interior Ministry troops,
headed by Gen Hasanov, is in Moscow on an official visit at the
invitation of the Russian Interior Ministry.

“International organizations, including the United Nations, are dealing
with this problem,” the commander said. He said that “when the Nagornyy
Karabakh problem is solved by political means, Azerbaijan’s Interior
Ministry troops will maintain public order there”.

Gen Hasanov also said that during the preparations and holding
of parliamentary elections in the country, internal troops will
“maintain public order in the republic to the highest degree”. He said:
“All illegal actions by extremists will be stopped, we will have no
problem with this.”

European Union: Wider still and wider

The Guardian – United Kingdom; Jun 15, 2005

The vision of a European Union smoothly spreading its blessings and
extending its membership to a larger and larger circle of nations has
been one of the casualties of the French and Dutch referendums. The
prospect of an ultimate union of up to 40 nations, spreading perhaps
as far as the Caucasus, is now clouded, with European governments so
timorous about expansion that they appear to have agreed to excise
all but the vaguest mention of it from the joint statement they will
produce at the end of this week’s summit. Divided though they were
over expansion, they had neverthless agreed on it sufficiently to
alienate a public opinion in most of the older member states which
wanted either to proceed with it more slowly or not to embrace it at
all. Membership for Turkey, in particular, may have been an issue
which tipped the balance for voters in France and the Netherlands.
European leaders are now inevitably going to have to reassess their
plans and timetable for negotations with prospective new members.

There are difficulties in dealing with all of the three very
different categories of potential members, not least because in each
of them a quite different array of interests and prejudices operates.
The easiest in principle is south-eastern Europe, with Romania and
Bulgaria already due to join in 2007, Croatia waiting hopefully, and
the other Yugoslav successor states expected ultimately to follow.
This is more completion than expansion, filling in a gap within
the map of united Europe, in the case of Romania and Bulgaria,
and foreclosing any return to war, in the case of former Yugoslavia.
Romania and Bulgaria, as with earlier candidates, have to meet certain
conditions, and there could be a brief delay. The greater problems,
not helped by prevarication and procrastination by the EU, are in
former Yugoslavia, with Kosovo’s status uncertain, and the legacy of
the war far from overcome elsewhere. But, after the traumas of the
1990s, most Europeans will not need convincing of the sense of using
membership to bring stability to the Balkans.

More difficult, and more distant, is the question of membership for
the Ukraine (and Belarus, if political change comes in that country)
because there is a distinct divergence between most western members
of the union and most eastern ones, with the latter much more drawn
to the idea of taking Russia’s immediate neighbours quickly into the
European orbit. Anxiety about Russia, in other words, is the key to
the motives both of applicants and those most likely to welcome them.
That anxiety weakens as you move west, and public opinion varies
accordingly. Georgia and Armenia are even more far flung and, after
the referendums, truly remote possibilities.

Most difficult of all is Turkey, and not only because anti-Turkish
sentiment was so clearly a factor in the French and Dutch votes. The
deeper problems are the degree of ambivalence on both sides, and
the likelihood that in the long negotiations due to begin in October
there will, over the years, be just too many occasions for friction
and worse. Jacques Chirac has probably committed any future French
government to a referendum on Turkish entry. It is ironic that a
move intended to take the Turkish factor out of the decision on the
constitution failed in that purpose, but has instead laid a landmine
which could go off with disastrous effect in the future. Turkish
support for entry has already dropped somewhat since the referendums,
and nationalist resistance to some of the EU’s demands and standards
has stiffened. The lesson of Turkey is not that Turkish membership is
a bad idea – that is a different argument – but that in a Europe which
is fed up with being told rather than persuaded, you must convince
before you act, and not the other way round.

Karabakh electoral bloc slams authorities for “dirty tricks” ahead of polls

Regnum, Moscow
15 Jun 05

[No dateline as received] The bloc of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] and Movement 88 have issued a
statement in the run-up to the [19 June] parliamentary elections in
Nagornyy Karabakh.

The statement says: “Our country’s tomorrow is in danger again. Some
puppets of the incumbent authorities want to secure parliamentary
seats for pro-government candidates with the aim of maintaining the
atmosphere of connivance, lawlessness, corruption and bribery as long
as possible. Abusing power, using levers of power and riches illegally
earned through misappropriation and embezzlement, ignoring human
and moral values and inspiring fear and terror, they want to achieve
their goals by using dirty tricks, breaking the law and giving bribes.”

The authors of the statement called on Karabakh citizens to unite
again around the idea of democratization and protecting human rights,
not to yield to the mendacious pledges of pro-government candidates
and to vote for the battle-hardened candidates of the bloc who were
tested in the crucible of the Artsakh [Nagornyy Karabakh] war.

Armenia unhappy about US State Department’s report on trafficking – official

Noyan Tapan news agency
14 Jun 05

Yerevan, 14 June: The US State Department’s fifth annual Trafficking
in Persons Report will help Armenia implement its future programmes
in this sphere. Serious tasks have been set, but Armenia is unhappy
about some points of the report and will raise its objections soon,
Armenia’s Prosecutor-General Agvan Ovsepyan told a press conference
on 14 June.

The report said in particular that Armenia had serious problems with
human trafficking. It said that Armenia had been placed on a watch
list this year because of its failure to show evidence of increasing
efforts to combat trafficking over the past year.

Many sectors of the government do not officially recognize the problem
and the government failed to disseminate or implement any elements
of its national action plan, the report said.