Nation

President calls on journalists to co-op

President Aliyev has called on journalists to cooperate with the authorities for the sake of Azerbaijan's development and help detect occurrences that damage statehood.

He advised not to follow sensations, but mirror the truth and disclose irregularities in all spheres, as he was congratulating journalists in a solemn reception on the occasion of the National Press Day.

The President spoke of the great contributions of the founding father of Azeri press Hasan Bey Zardabi, as well as prominent cultural figures such as Uzeyir Hacibayov, Calil Mammadquluzada and others to the development of national journalism. The Azeri President pointed at the importance of taking an advantage of the past heritage and impartially reflecting the present day reality.

Highly appreciating his being named as the Friend of Journalists, President Aliyev said he would do his utmost to strengthen the friendship and would be the devoted friend of journalists for ever.

Occupation day marked

Tuesday saw the occupation day of Agdam province of Azerbaijan, as this was marked by a number of organizations in Baku.

The occupation of Agdam in 1993 has left 80 villages out of 120 under Armenian rule and 80 percent of its 160,000 population homeless and settled in 57 regions of the country. The total space of Agdam's occupied territory is 1,095 square kilometers.

Armenian terrorists are currently operating in Agdam and other occupied lands, setting up training bases for terrorist organizations such as Asala, Hamas, PKK, which are financed by Armenia from illegal drugs and arms trade.

The Council of Qarabag Youths, the Youth Organization of Refugees and IDPs with participation of government representatives organized a roundtable to mark the occupation day at the UN Resource Center Friday.

The participants in the roundtable called on international organizations to recognize Armenia as a country supporting terrorism.

In another undertaking, representatives from the Qarabag Liberation Organization, Musavat, Adalat parties, the Agdam Executive Body and IDPs did homage to the Cemetery of Martyrs in Baku and read prayers Tuesday to mark the occupation day of Agdam province.

According to former Azeri ambassador to China Tamerlan Qarayev, those who became victims for territorial integrity would live eternally in the memories of Azeris, the occupied lands would be freed and nobody allowed to speculate with these lands.

Gov't magnifies Gross's pro-Armenian stand – opposition

Leader of Musavat, a key opposition party in Azerbaijan, Isa Qambar told journalists after meeting with Andreas Gross, a Council of Europe reporter that has come under Azeri government's vehement criticism, that 'the authorities exaggerate Gross's pro-Armenian position'.

Azeri government had been insistently pushing for replacement of the rapporteur of the Monitoring Group of the Council of Europe for his allegedly catering for Armenian interests, something that triggered a month-long strain on Azeri-CE relations.

"Mr. Gross is just a politician who is accustomed to express openly what he thinks, while Mr. Kassan voices his stance in a more diplomatic way", I. Qambar maintained.

“Anyhow, they don’t differ much in their opinions and approaches”.

Mr. Gross was meeting with the leaders of key opposition parties at the OSCE Baku Office Thursday, discussing the way Azerbaijan is fulfilling its commitments to the CE, the upcoming referendum on August 24 and next year's presidential elections, all being unanimous about Azerbaijan's 'unconditional fulfillment' of its CE commitments.

Opposition braced to boycott

Leaders of key opposition parties in Azerbaijan are pushing ahead with consultations to boycott the upcoming referendum on 24 August on the President initiated changes to the Constitution.

The Azeri President decreed in late June to announce a nationwide polling to introduce 24 amendments to the Constitution. Opposition has come increasingly furious over the proposals to transfer the President’s powers, if he is unable or absent to rule, to the Premier, but not the Speaker, and abolishment of the non-constituency election system, labeling the moves as forays to pave the way for President Aliyev’s son coming to power.

MP Ilham Aliyev, President Aliyev’s son, is the First Vice-President of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan, leading a parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe.

The leaders of three big parties, Musavat, the Party for National Independence of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan Democratic Party gathered at the Musavat headquarters Monday to discuss ‘concrete steps’ for boycotting the referendum. The party heads, however, dodged to elaborated on the meeting in public.

Ultimatum

Earlier, heads of 25 opposition parties, besides the three parties, including both wings of the PFPA, the ALP, Adalat and others signed a joint statement to protest the upcoming referendum on changes to the Constitution. Other public organizations and NGOs are also expected to join in the document.

The statement demands that a special session of parliament be summoned to amend the laws "On Central Election Commission", "On referendum" and "On parliament elections" and time allotted for political parties to speak on state-run TV. It also urges to adjourn the polling for a at least a month and axe some of the proposed changes to the Constitution, especially abolishment of the non-constituency election system and the authorization of the Constitution Court to quash political parties.

The parties have warned to call on Azeris to boycott the referendum if the demands are not complied with for 10 days to come.

Picket

The Musavat Party picketed the Constitution Court Tuesday with mottoes "Postpone the referendum", "Set up independent judiciary commissions" and "No to neo-monarchy" in a protest calculated to draw the court's attention to control over execution of laws, law violations attempts. The protesters called on the court to prevent everything contradicting articles of the Constitution, according to the party's executive.

Speakers said the Council of Europe is against the date and form of the referendum, with the PA CE Monitoring Group's sharp stand, and the US State Department has called for its postponement and change to the composition of the Central Election Commission.

The picketers said if the authorities didn't agree with the opposition's demands, they would call on the public to boycott the referendum.

The protesters read a petition and forwarded it to the court.

Refugees protest in Baku

Refugees from Agdam province, currently settled in Baku, held a protest action on the initiative of the Qarabag Liberation Organization (QLO) in Darnagul settlement Tuesday, showing mottoes "We say no to territorial exchange" and "Armenian invaders should stand international court" and burning Armenian flags. The protesters said if Azeri lands were not freed peacefully, all of them would fight for their native lands. During the unsanctioned protest action the QLO chairman Akif Nagi was taken to the police precinct, but later released.

Party executive gets three years in jail

Azerbaijan Democratic Party (ADP) executive Faina Kungurova was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of hooliganism at a Nasimi district court Wednesday. The lawyer of the convicted Elcin Qambarov told AssA-Irada ‘the verdict was politically motivated’ and they would complain to the Court of Appeals. F. Kungurova was arrested in April this year for hooliganism. But, the actual reason, as human rights activists believe, is her part in mass ADP protests.

Independent judiciary urged

A conference "Authority and independence of the judiciary" opened at the Quba Hall of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Baku Monday. The organizers of the conference are the Azeri Constitution Court, the German Technical Cooperation Society, GTZ and the American Bar Association, ABA-CELLI.

Attending the conference, ABA-CELLI Regional Director in Azerbaijan John Porter stressed that the independence and impartiality of the judiciary is an internationally recognized principle. He spoke of his visit to Russia and issued positive remarks on judicial processes. Also taking part were Russian Constitution Court Judge Nikolay Vitruk, GTZ project leader Rolf Knipper, and Norwegian Constitution Court Judge Trond Dolva among 171 participants from the US, France, Germany, Moldova, Russia, Norway, and Georgia. It was accentuated that the independence of the judiciary is a fundamental principle of a law-based state and these two notions are closely interconnected.

Youth forum centers on health

The third health forum of youth was held in Saki, northern Azerbaijan on the initiative of UNICEF, as representatives from the ministries of youth, sports and tourism, public health, education, NGOs engaged in youth health and development, Azerbaijan Child-to-Child peace Network, Safa and Nur child groups, and UNICEF supported youth resource centers from both Baku and the regions took part. The objective of the forum was to discuss the work done, progress and drawbacks of resource centers and next year's work plan. General Director of the Caucasus Youth center Birlik Elyura Mammadova told AssA-Irada that the forum had presented activities of the ministries of youth, sports and tourism, public health and education jointly with UNICEF in youth health and development.

US - Azerbaijan's biggest demining partner

US Charge d'affaires in Baku Nancy Eldorney told a news conference at the Hyatt Park that the US has allotted a total of 300mln dollars in assistance to Azerbaijan over the past decade and is planning to give 50mln more this year. In 1999, the US Department of State allocated 3mln to Azerbaijan for mine clearance, the US armed forces' European Command granted 250,000 in disaster relief and 250,000 for repair of three schools in Baku in November 2000. Specialists from the US's European Command in cooperation with the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) have been implementing a project since 8 July in a bid to ensure public safety, improve mine clearance and raise sappers. A total of 75 sappers will be trained as part of the project with two-month training in ANAMA camps in Baku and Horadiz.

ANAMA director Nazim Ismayilov told the news conference that his agency, set up under a presidential decree four years ago, had demined an area of 1,200,000 square meters. In the last decade, 1400 people have suffered mines, with 400 deaths.

According to him, the agency with only 45 mine fighters is incapable of clearing 600,000 square meter mine littered territories. It will take much time and more manpower, he said. "The US is the biggest donor to help Azeri demining efforts", he noted. UN representative Syed Aga said the UN has rendered assistance totaling 1mln dollars to Azerbaijan. He stressed that now funds flow into ANAMA directly to previous meditation of the UN, thanks to transparency achieved.

Oil baron's daughter dies

A renowned public figure, the daughter of the famous Azeri oil tycoon and philanthropist Samsi Asadullayev, who lived in the 19-20th centuries, Zuleyxa Weber-Asadullayeva died at the age of 87 in Istanbul on her way from Baku to her home in the US.

She stopped over in Istanbul to meet her relatives and close friends.

Mrs. Weber came to Baku in early June to take part in the annual Caspian Oil and Gas exhibition. She was humanitarian advisor to Devon Energy active in Azerbaijan.

Z. Asadullayeva was known for her active propaganda for Azerbaijan, making regular trips to Baku, delivering humanitarian assistance and pushing the truth about the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict into international spotlight.

The staff of the Azernews English language weekly are saddened over the death of Mrs. Weber-Asadullayeva and extend their condolences to her relatives.

Background

She was born in 1916 in the family of the renowned oil baron Samsi Asadullayev, who was famous for his charity activities. The Bolshevik revolution in Azerbaijan forced the Asadullayevs into an exile in 1922 in Istanbul, where Mrs. Asadullayeva lived for 30 years, getting education at the History Faculty of Istanbul University.

Marrying US engineer Gordon Baker in 1952, she left for the US for the rest of her life.

In the States, Mrs. Weber-Asadullayeva was admitted to the worldly Rochester society of New York, whose Mayor dubbed her Shekherezada in local media like in Arabic Nights.

She was an often guest in various top level parties and meetings, where she was introduced to the spouse of President Theodore Roosevelt, Ms. Eleanor.

She was teaching History and Geography in Virginia comprehensive schools. Having Turkish, English, French, German, Russian, and Portuguese at her finger tips, Mrs. Weber was also involved in translations.

In the closing years of her life, she was actively lobbying for the newly independent Azerbaijan in the US. Since 1995, she had been consulting oil companies working in Azerbaijan, which she helped with recurrent humanitarian assistance.

One of her sisters Maryam, who was prohibited to leave the Soviet Azerbaijan, she could see after a 70 year break in 1991.