Official chronicle
On Jan. 19, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group Bernard Fassier (France), Yuri Merzlakov (Russian), Matthew Bryza (the United States) and OSCE special envoy Anjei Kaspshik, the AzerTaj state information agency reported.
The current situation and prospects of negotiations on settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh were discussed at the meeting.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited Martyrs Lane on the national mourning day - Jan. 20.
Aliyev commemorated national heroes who died fighting for the country's freedom and independence.
Aliyev laid a wreath next to the Eternal Fire and met with the families of victims. He also accepted condolences from representatives of the diplomatic corps.
Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan received Benita Ferrero-Waldner, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy and her accompanying delegationon Jan 21, AzerTag State News Agency reported.
Successful development of Azerbaijan-EU cooperation in a variety of fields and good future prospects for this cooperation was stressed during the meeting. Azerbaijan`s active involvement into the European neighborhood policy was welcomed. The sides also exchanged their views on the future prospects for Azerbaijan-EU relations.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov arrived in Azerbaijan for a one-day visit on Jan. 22, AzerTag State News Agency reported.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Vagif Sadigov and other state officials met the Bulgarian president at the Heydar Aliyev International Airport.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov on Jan. 22, Azertaj state new agency reported.
The Presidents expressed content with the level of development of relations in political, humanitarian and other fields and great potential for deepening mutual ties and economic cooperation.
The Presidents emphasized good prospects to enhance energy cooperation. They also stressed close cooperation within the international organizations and further development of bilateral relations.
The meeting also focused on bilateral ties, regional and international cooperation and issues of mutual interest.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev sent a message of congratulations to her Excellency Quentin Bryce, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia on the country's public holiday - Australia Day, the Azertaj state information agency reported.
The President expressed hope that friendly and cooperative relations between Azerbaijan and Australia would develop and contribute to welfare of the two countries` peoples.
Political movements
An Azerbaijani pro-government party will not launch its own referendum initiative group.
"We have decided to participate in the campaign together with the governing New Azerbaijan Party (NAP)," member of parliament and Ana Vatan party Chairman Fazail Agamali told Trend .
The opposition Azerbaijan National Independence Party (ANIP) has created a referendum agitation group.
"On Jan. 17, the meeting of preliminary initiative groups completed. The meeting of the agitation group of National independence was held today," Secretary of ANIP on press and propaganda Ali Orujov said to Trend .
Azerbaijan's governing party has launched the New Azerbaijan initiative group. The opposition Musavat party has launched the Republicans initiative group. On Jan. 14, the New Azerbaijan Party (NAP) presented lists with signatures to the Central Election Commission (CEC) to hold registration.
The Azadlig bloc - People's Front Party, National Unity Movement, Citizen and Development Party, and Musavat, Umid, Democratic, For Azerbaijan Public Forum and several non-governmental organizations established the Civil Movement for Republic and Karabakh initiative groups.
The Union for Democracy, uniting the Azerbaijan Classic Popular Front Party, Azadlig party, the National Democratic Party, the Great Azerbaijan Party and the People's Party established the People's Republic of Azerbaijan initiative group, as well as the Azerbaijan National Independence Party formed the National Independence initiative group.
The status of Azerbaijani-ex-Presidents will be considered after the referendum.
"We will seriously think about this issue after changes to be made in the Constitution," a member of the governing New Azerbaijan Party Political Council MP Aydin Mirzazade told Trend .
To determine the status of ex-Presidents of Azerbaijan need the experience of foreign countries and views of deputies must be learned. The bill on ex-Presidents must be developed not by deputies in separate, but by Parliament.
Azerbaijani opposition party has begun to develop a bill on the status of ex-Presidents.
"After the amendments and changes in the Constitution are adopted in a referendum the law on ex-Presidents will be required. Therefore, I develop such a bill beforehand," Chairman of the Great Establishment Party (GEP) MP Fazil Gazanfaroglu said to Trend .
Gazanfaroglu will submit a draft to Parliament during the spring session. "The bill will provide funds to ex-Presidents or their families," Gazanfaroglu said.
He said that the will of the state to implement the draft on ex-Presidents was very relevant. .
Azerbaijani opposition party's referendum initiative group has been issued referendum membership lists. "The Central Election Committee (CEC) issued referendum membership lists to the National Independence campaign group as the CEC revealed no problems with group's founding documents," spokesman for the National Independence Party Ali Orujov said.
Orujov said the party has begun gathering signatures. "We have little time to gather 40,000 signatures. But will do it in short period of time," he said.
Elections
The Azerbaijani Central Elections Commission (CEC) publicized a list of media which will hold free pre-referendum agitation on Jan. 19.
Agitation groups which have more than 40,000 members will get opportunity to use free air time at the Public Television and free article place at Azerbaijan, Respublika, Bakinskiy rabochiy and Khalg gazeti newspapers, the CEC reported on Jan .19.
The abovementioned media should submit notifications to the CEC, when they decide to grant paid air time or article place for pre-referendum agitation campaign. This media should publish data on conditions and amount of payment within 35 days after publishing a decision on appointment of referendum, The CEC reported.
Pre-referendum agitation begins 28 days before the election day and ends 24 hours before the election day. It is banned to agitate on the election day and beginning from 8:00 one day before the election.
Three referendum initiative groups have been launched in the Shaki region in northwestern Azerbaijan.
Meetings to launch the groups were held in the regional center, Shaki, and 21 neighboring villages.
Constituency 113 established the Shaki Khan Sarayi initiative group. Constituencies 114 and 115 launched the Dada Gorgud and Chalabi Khan groups, respectively.
Representatives have already been selected, a Constituency 113 member told Trend .
As many as 170 representatives were selected for the referendum initiative groups.
The local constituency members have been provided with all the necessary conditions to campaign.
Azerbaijani youth and athletes established the For Sustainable Development initiative group on Jan. 19 to support the referendum.
The initiative group unites over 2,000 young people and athletes, Olympic Champion Elnur Mammadli said at the founding meeting.
"We call on the youth and athlete in Azerbaijan to take an active part in voting on the referendum," he said.
Web cameras will be installed during the referendum in Azerbaijan, Communications and IT Minister Ali Abbasov said.
"Web cameras were installed for the first time in Azerbaijan during the presidential election," he said. "We have adjusted our procedures to use the cameras for the referendum."
Web cameras were installed at 500 constituencies during the presidential election in 2008.
The head of the Central Election Commission (CEC) told Trend that Web cameras may also be used for the referendum.
Academics from the Azerbaijani National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) are forming a referendum initiative group.
"Meetings of the preliminary initiative groups were held at the ANAS and representatives were named," Academic Secretary of the ANAS Presidium Sarkhan Abbasov told Trend on Jan. 22. "The initiative group will comprise 2,000 people."
A founding meeting will be held on Jan. 23, he added.
The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Azerbaijan rejected two complaints by the Republic initiative group that was established by the opposition Musavat party.
The complaints were due to the pressure on members of initiative group during collecting of signatures in Ganja City and Jalilabad region. The Ganja police said that members of the initiative group were detained due to population's complaints. Citizens argued that members of this initiative group carried out anti-Israel propaganda.
Detention of Musavat's initiative group members' is not connected with collection of signatures, CEC member Ramiz Ibrahimov said.
Republic authorized official failed to give concrete facts on pressure.
Another complaint was due to pressure on voters whose signatures collected the Republic initiative group in Jalilabad. District Police Department did not confirm the facts of pressure on voters, on the contrary, referring to the complaints of the same citizens to members of the initiative group. The latter, according to voters, collecting signatures under another pretext, and not in connection with the referendum, CEC member Gabil Orujov said.
Most members of CEC voted against the complaints, only two members voted in favour.
Member of the opposition Umid party initiative group returned membership lists to CEC, CEC chairman Mazahir Panahov said.
The referendum regarding additions and changes to article 29 of the Constitution will take place in Azerbaijan on Mar. 18.
Up to now, 14 initiative groups have been established. Almost all of them were issued referendum membership lists.
Forty-five initiative groups have been registered in district election commissions.
The Constitution of Azerbaijan was adopted in 1995, and addition and changes were made to it in 2002.
Foreign policy
Arrangements have completed for a military-cooperation agreement between Azerbaijan and Belgium, new Belgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Philippe Jottar said at a meeting with Azerbaijani Defense Minister General-Colonel Safar Abiyev on Jan. 19.
The Defense Ministry has signed bilateral cooperation agreements with more than 20 countries and military-cooperation pacts with 50 countries.
Abiyev said Armenian armed forces have not withdrawn from Azerbaijani territories and the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group have proven fruitless.
The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group have proposed Azerbaijan and Armenia several amendments to the basic principles to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters on Jan. 21.
"The co-chairs presented us with several amendments to the basic principles. We are working on them at the moment," Mammadyarov said.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will participate in the European Union (EU) summit to take place in Prague on May 7, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told journalists on Jan. 21.
The EU summit will focus on the energy situation in Europe, as well as on the Eastern Partnership project.
On Dec. 4, the European Commission (EC) backed an initiative by Poland and Switzerland to advance the EU's Eastern Partnership policy, which promotes closer cooperation with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine.
The partnership will be a multinational forum comprising 27 EU countries, as well as Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The organization will host talks on a visa-free regime, free trade zones and strategic accords, and implement small student-exchange, environmental-preservation and energy-supply projects.
Azerbaijan is a significant country in "East Partnership" program, told Trend EU Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighborhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner on tuesday.
"I intend to visit all three South Caucasus republics. States included in the program "East Partnership" are important for the EU. That's why, I intend to visit them individually. I believe that the program will include all issues, including energy dossier ", said EU Commissioner.
According to Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the visit to Azerbaijan scheduled for January 21 this year.
The 17th conference of the Economic and Environmental Forum of the OSCE ended in Vienna. The focus of this conference was effectively managing of migration. Azerbaijan was the delegation, including representatives of the State Migration Service, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.
At the opening of the conference, speaking on behalf of GUAM member countries, Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Austria Fuad Ismayilov, said that the issue of governance of uncontrolled migration to the GUAM countries is very important, and it is also of great importance to the security of the OSCE region. He also stressed that the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan was established in 2007 and now it is cooperating with international migration organizations.
The two-day conference was attended by 200 participants. Amongst the participants there were representatives of governments, international organizations, civil society and business, etc.
Ogtay Ismayilzade, the first secretary of the Azerbaijani permanent representation in the UN, was appointed as Deputy Chairman of the UN Disarmament Commission on Jan. 15, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported on Jan. 21.
Poland's permanent representative was appointed as Chairman and the Netherlands' representative as Reporter of the UN Commission.
New draft action plan for 2008-2010 of the Council of Europe (CE) on Azerbaijan has been designed, ambassador and Azerbaijan's permanent representative to the CE Arif Mammadov said.
" Azerbaijan's authorities have made their proposals on the action plan. The proposals will be considered in early February at the next meeting of the Committee of Ministers," Mammadov said.
Azerbaijan was admitted to the Council of Europe in 2000 and undertook commitments on democracy, rule of law and protection of human rights.
"The action plan covers a variety of fields including continuation of reforms in judicial system, cooperation in the field of media, execution of the European Court decisions in Azerbaijan and simplifying internal procedures for examining these issues, continuation of reforms in penal system, development of democratic processes and civil society, securing social rights, introduction of the European Social Charter, inter-cultural dialogue, education, culture and national heritage," he said.
Mammadov said school of political science is the most successful project in the field of development of civil society implemented by the CE thus far. "The project will be continued. It covers significant layers of society. School of political science of Baku occupies prominent role and leads among CE participating countries. It is attached especial importance," he said.
The Russian Defense Ministry has neither passed nor sold arms and military equipment to Armenia in 2008 in the amount and variety published by several media outlets, a note for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry says. It has been submitted to the Counselor of the Azerbaijani Embassy in Russia Bakhish Zeynalov today, Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry demanded further explanation for the alleged donation of Russian weapons worth 800 million dollars to Armenia from the 102nd Russian military base in Gyumri.
The Russian Foreign Ministry's note says that the reports are strong anti-Russian misinformation and are not conducive to the positive development of friendly Russia-Azerbaijan relations.
Russia believes that the issue has been exhausted and is confident that, if any concerns occur, the two countries will not make hasty conclusions and actions, but will work together to settle the possible doubts to advance the close relations and strategic partnership.
Trend interviews the Hungarian government's special envoy on the Nabucco pipeline project, Mihaly Bayer.
Q: Does it seem to you that Europe should be in a hurry to construct alternative gas pipelines?
A: The question of constructing alternative gas pipelines was not put on the agenda only yesterday.
We have concrete projects like Nabucco, which is a priority project for the EU. And we are working actively on its implementation. I think that the current situation not only pushes formal efforts forward, but also accelerates them. First and foremost this goes for Nabucco.
Q: What role does Hungary see for the Nabucco project after the Russian-Ukrainian gas conflict?
A: Budapest's position on Nabucco is clear. We believe that Hungary needs to diversify its gas sources and trasport routes for import. This is a basic question of energy security for any country because we still depend on the export structure and system that we inherited after 1990.
Since then, the system has not change. Hungary has always considered Nabucco a priority project because it can ensure the diversification of gas resources and routes that we need.
I want to note that Prime Minister Ferenc Durchan said in a recent interview that there are different projects to diversify gas, but for us the priority - the number-one project - is the Nabucco gas pipeline.
Q: Hungary also participates in the South Stream project which will provide its first gas supplies to Europe in 2013. What is Budapest's interest in the project and what role will the country play?
A: I think that the South Stream project will serve our interests of diversification, but this project will only contribute to diversifying gas transport routes. It will not provide access to new resources - natural gas fields. Therefore, South Stream will make possible only partial diversification. Hungary considers Nabucco alone to be a priority project.
Q: Is Hungary prepared to increase investments in alternative energy resources?
A: We follow the EU policy that Hungary has approved and based on which the EU has sufficiently ambitious plans to increase the role of alternative energy sources. This is a question not only of Hungary's readiness. This is our responsibility as part of fulfilling the EU's pan-European policies.
Human rights
Juridical protection of citizens' rights was improved in Azerbaijan compared to previous years, Chairman Ramiz Rzayev said at a plenum meeting of the Supreme Court on Jan. 23.
Chairmen of Juridical Boards of the Supreme Court made reports on state of courts, as well as discussed and analyzed this issue at the plenum.
The examined cases and received complaints were increased compared to 2007 at other boards except the Juridical Board on Economic Dispute Affairs.
An action plan for the first half of 2009 was approved, as well as concrete crime and civil affairs were examined at the Supreme Court Plenum.
Nagorno-Karabakh
Jan. 18, Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops located in Agbulag village of Tovuz region from 23:00 to 23:50. The shots were fired from Berd region of Armenia.
The Armenian armed forces were also firing from Kuropatkino village of Khojavand region from 17:25 to 17:30. On Jan. 19, the shots were also fired from Mehdili village of Jabrail region from 01:15 to 01:40. This was reported by the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry press service.
The response of fire shelling was suppressed, without any losses.
On Jan. 19, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azeri troops from the Kuropatkino village and areas of the Khojavand region at 09:51 -10:00.
The Azeri troops answered their fire. No causalities were reported.
On Jan. 20, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops from nameless heights in the Gorbanboy region at 17:00-17:50.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that the Armenian soldiers fired at Azerbaijani troops from an area outside Garvand village and nameless heights in the Fuzuli region at 21:55-22:45 and from nameless heights in the Khojavand region at 22:00-22:40.
The Azerbaijani troops answered their fire. No causalities were reported.
Units of the armed forces of Armenia bombarded dislocation places of the Azerbaijan armed forces in opposite directions on January 22 from 14:10 to 05:30 from their positions at unknown heights of Fizuli region and from positions near the Garvend village.
Dislocation places of the Azerbaijan armed forces were also under fire from 05:45 to 05:50 from positions near the village of Agdam Yusifdzhanly and from 06:10 to 06:25 from positions Hodzhavendsky area. This was reported in the press service of the Ministry of Defense of Azerbaijan.
The response of fire shelling was suppressed, no losses were reported.
On Jan. 23, the Armenian Armed Forces opened fire at Azerbaijani troops at 16:10-16:25. The shots were fired from an area outside the Gorgan village and nameless heights in Fuzuli region.
The Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported that the Armenian soldiers fired at Azerbaijani troops from an area outside the Sarijali village in the Agdam region at 02:50-03:00 on Jan. 24, from nameless heights in the Fuzuli region at 05:15-05:35.
The Azeri troops answered their fire. No casualties were reported.
