The Azerbaijani politician Zardusht
Alizade thinks so.Parliamentary elections will be held in 10 polling districts
of Azerbaijan on 13 of May. We should remind that the elections in those polling
districts, which were held in last November, weren’t recognized under pressure
of international community and demonstrations of protest of the opposition. The
head of OSCE office in Baqu Maurisio Pavesty has declared the day before that
the OSCE marks positively the election campaign in Azerbaijan adding that 10 observers
will arrive to Azerbaijan on 24 of April for monitoring the elections.We had
a conversation with the chairman of the "Caucasian Researching Center of
Crisis Situations" Zardusht Alizade about coming elections and other issues.-
The international structures declared after the elections of Mili Mejlis in November
2005 that they would follow duration of double elections and the PACE also declared
that the report on Azerbaijan would depend on the correspondence of those elections
to European democratic standards. How is the pre-election atmosphere in Azerbaijan?-
The pre-election period is less interesting and less noticeable. But there are
a lot of vainglorious persons who do their best to fill posts in the Parliament.
The point is that the result of the elections is already obvious, and the fate
of the parliament is predicted beforehand. 115 sits from 125 were given to those
persons who were approved by the resident’s personnel and know 10 deputy mandates
are simply decorations. In most probability 8-9 of those sits will be given to
the opposition representatives.- In your opinion, will they be real oppositionists
or those who play "opposition" and collaborate with the authorities.-
Those who don’t collaborate have already boycotted, though they were playing the
same role, which "Musafat" did in 2000; collaboration with the authorities
and playing cat and mice with them, which was simply a veil for rigging the elections.
Now "Musafat" plays that role. And in general these elections won’t
change anything, because the Parliament doesn’t decide anything, it’s the formal
component of the authority.- Anyway, what do you think, will the elections
be more fair and democratic than it was in last November.- Elections were
held very transparent and fair in some polling stations during the elections in
last November but the results of just those polling stations were considered invalid
by the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan because the Presidents wasn’t satisfied
by its results. And elections were rigged in other polling stations.- Do you
consider possible that those 9-10 oppositionists won’t win objectively this time?-
The opposition will be elected in some polling stations fairly. The authorities
won’t make efforts for not recognizing the results of the elections because the
play has always been played and it won’t come from their interests. – The
President of Azerbaijan is leaving for the US on 28 of April. Are there any expectations
from that visit, in particularly in the context of the NK Conflict settlement?-
Perhaps naive persons have some expectations, but I don’t have, because the US
position is obvious. The US defends cynically and hypocritically the aggressor,
Armenia and declares that it can’t point the aggressor and give enormous financial
sources to Armenia, providing for its political assistance. For that reason Azerbaijan
can’t expect for great expectations.- Is your observation based on the sincere
declaration of the head of the sub commission of foreign relations of the US Congress
James Colby made in Basque that the US can defend any peaceful settlement, but
can’t make it to the parties.- It wasn’t sincerity. It is an American expression
equal to the US adopts trivial position, when the aggressor and its victim are
in the same flatness.- What do you think, what issues will the Presidents
negotiate round; elections in Azerbaijan, NK conflict settlement, remove of 907
resolution…- 907 resolution has lost its meaning, because Azerbaijan is
an self-satisfied country and doesn’t need in financial assistance. As regards
Iran it is a serious problem and I think that just the "Iranian dossier"
will be the main point of discussion.Naira Mamikonian
