AZERBAIJAN: EXILES’ PARTICIPATION IN ELECTION CAMPAIGN UNCERTAIN DESPITE REGISTRATION
By Jean-Christophe Peuch

Radio Free Europe, Czech rep.
Aug 7 2005

(RFE/RL) The international community has long pressed the government
of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to improve its democratic
credentials and ensure that legislative polls due later this year are
free and fair. Now, in a move seen as a concession to foreign pressure,
election officials have authorized two prominent exiled opposition
leaders to seek parliamentary seats. But whether the two men will be
able to return to Azerbaijan to participate in the election campaign
remains uncertain.

Prague, 7 September 2005 (RFE/RL) — On 5 September, an election
commission in Baku registered former President Ayaz Mutallibov as a
candidate in the 6 November polls.

Mutallibov now co-chairs the Social Democratic Party of Azerbaijan.

He has been living in exile in Russia since 1992.

Last month, another election commission in the Azerbaijani capital
registered former parliament speaker Rasul Quliyev as a candidate.

Quliyev chairs the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan and has been living
in self-exile in the United States since 1996.

Both men are wanted in Azerbaijan on charges they deny.

The Council of Europe, which Azerbaijan joined in 2001, has been
pressing the successive government of late President Heidar Aliyev
and his son Ilham to allow both political exiles to return home and
participate in the country’s political life.

Their recent registration is seen as a concession to European pressure
on the part of Azerbaijani authorities.

Speaking to our correspondent from Russia, Mutallibov welcomed the
decision that in theory allows him to campaign in Baku’s Yasamal
district.

“My reaction is very positive. I met the news with great
satisfaction. In this regard I would like to say that I agree
with those analysts and observers who say the first stage of the
electoral process is relatively transparent. [This being said,] the
vote itself must be perfectly transparent and I do hope it will be,”
Mutallibov said.

But whether the first president of post-Soviet Azerbaijan will be
allowed to return home safely remains under question.

Just hours after Mutallibov spoke to RFE/RL, the Prosecutor-General’s
Office in Baku ordered his immunity to be lifted. Mutallibov
subsequently declined to comment on the decision, which he said was
“predictable.”

The Prosecutor-General’s Office last month took a similar step with
regard to Quliyev, less than 24 hours after an election commission
in Baku’s Xatai district had registered the former parliament speaker
as a candidate.

Under Azerbaijani laws, candidates seeking parliamentary seats are
granted immunity from penal prosecution that can be lifted only if
they commit a crime during the election campaign.

Azerbaijan’s Prosecutor-General Zakir Qaralov last month said nothing
prevented Mutallibov and Quliyev from registering as candidates in
the upcoming polls. But he made it clear both men would be arrested
upon their arrival in Baku.

Quliyev tells RFE/RL he will challenge the prosecutor-general’s
decision to lift his immunity before an Azerbaijani tribunal and,
if necessary, before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

“I deeply regret that the Prosecutor-General’s Office made this hasty
decision. Were they afraid I would show up in Baku within the next
four or five hours [that followed my registration], or what? This
decision violates Azerbaijan’s constitution and other laws. By doing
this they cast an enormous doubt on the democratic character of the
upcoming polls,” Quliyev said.

Quliyev left Azerbaijan in the midst of growing disagreements with
Heidar Aliyev. He is wanted in Azerbaijan for allegedly embezzling
$100 million between 1990 and 1995, first as a state oil executive,
then as parliament speaker.

The charges facing Mutallibov are multiple.

He is reportedly wanted for his alleged responsibility in the bloody
army crackdown in Baku on 20 January 1990. Then-Prime Minister
Mutallibov took over as first secretary of Azerbaijan’s Communist
Party only after the Soviet military intervention, which claimed
nearly 170 lives.

Other reports say the former Azerbaijani president is wanted for his
failure to prevent the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenian forces
and for a 1996 failed assassination attempt against Heidar Aliyev.

Faced with increasing criticism over Karabakh, Mutallibov was forced
to resign in March 1992. He fled the country a few weeks later after
a failed attempt to retake power.

Mutallibov says he is not familiar with the legal proceedings initiated
against him.

“I’ve never seen them. During all [13] years [I’ve spent in exile],
I haven’t seen anything. Authorities [in Baku] could have sent
any document to the country I’m forced to live in, but that never
happened. They can’t even formulate the charges. At some point they
mentioned the events of 20 January 1990. But everyone knows they
were directly connected to a decision made by [then-Soviet President
Mikhail] Gorbachev. Then they invented something else. But they never
produced anything concrete,” Mutallibov said.

Quliyev says that whatever the risks, he will return to Azerbaijan
before the election.

“My plans haven’t changed. I am still a registered candidate. Under
Azerbaijani laws, no prosecutor, no official can lift my immunity.

Even if today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow a court rules that
the prosecutor-general’s decision is right, I will not change my
plans. I will return to Azerbaijan and take part in the elections,”
Quliyev said.

Fuad Alasgarov, a high-ranking official in Azerbaijan’s presidential
administration, on 5 September suggested that political exiles campaign
while staying out of the country.

But Quliyev says he will not even consider that option.

“No government official can settle this issue. This issue must be
settled in line with the law. And the law says [authorities] have
no right to take such decisions and impose such conditions on me,”
Quliyev said.

Mutallibov also says he plans to return to Baku soon despite the risk
of being detained.

But, unlike Quliyev, he hopes Ilham Aliyev’s calls for national
reconciliation will eventually materialize, thus allowing him to
escape criminal prosecution.

“When people ask me what I expect, I tell them I expect the head of
state to make a decision. I do hope he will make a decision.

Generally speaking, things are moving in the right direction,”
Mutallibov said.

Aliyev has repeatedly vowed to hold free and fair elections
in November. But he has not publicly commented on the issue of
Azerbaijan’s political exiles.

If Quliyev is allowed to take part in the November election, he will
run on the lists of Azadliq (Freedom), the opposition coalition that
comprises the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, the reformist wing of
the Popular Front of Azerbaijan, and the Musavat party.

Mutallibov is registered as a candidate for Yeni Siyaset (New
Politics), Azerbaijan’s other main opposition coalition.