Baku Today, Azerbaijan
Aug 8 2005
Opposition Party Leader Calls Youth Movement Chair’s Arrest `Subversion’
Baku Today / AssA-Irada 08/08/2005 17:17
Popular Front Party (PFPA) chairman Ali Karimli has refuted reports
on the Yeni Fikir (New Thought) youth movement chairman’s Ruslan
Bashirli’s cooperation with the Armenian secret service.
`The reports and relevant TV broadcasts are another subversion of
Azerbaijani secret service’, Karimli told a news conference.
The Prosecutor’s Office issued a report on Thursday saying that while
visiting Tbilisi, Bashirli plotted with the Armenian secret service
to stage a coup and provoke stand-off in Azerbaijan. It also said
that the chairman and another representative of Yeni Fikir went to
the Georgian capital on Karimli’s instruction.
Karimli said that the individuals that spoke with Bashirli during the
visit presented themselves as representatives of Georgian
non-government organizations.
The PFPA chair said that a while ago, one of these persons, who are
now known to serve Armenian secret service, visited Baku, presenting
himself as a businessman, and met with him.
`If he works for Armenian secret service, how did he manage to enter
the city? Where were government agencies then?’
Karimli went on to say that after Bashirli returned from Georgia, he
met with him in Baku. Bashirli then said that while in Tbilisi, a
Georgian businessman offered him money, but he refused.
`I am not sure now – either Bashirli was not saying the truth or this
part was removed from the TV footage’, the PFPA chair said.
Karimli noted that he was disappointed with some statements by
Bashirli.
`I was frustrated by what he said about the Upper Garabagh conflict
and the US plans to stage a revolution in Azerbaijan….He was in a
drunken state when he made those statements.’
Karimli also said that he believes that various psychotropic
substances were mixed in the drinks that Bashirli had with the
mentioned individuals.
The PFPA chairman did not rule that Russian secret service agencies
may be involved in the incident, as the reports on the matter and the
video-tape showing the conversation Bashirli had in Tbilisi were
submitted to the Prosecutor’s Office by a Russian citizen. Bashirli
bears not criminal but `moral responsibility’ for the incident, said
Karimli.
The PFPA chairman added that the incident is aimed against him and
his party and expressed confidence that he will `succeed in
disclosing it’.