Ideologies of Elchibey and Current Authorities are Antipodes

Baku / 20.06.18 / Turan: Abulfaz Elchibey is one of the most outstanding personalities in the history of Azerbaijan. This opinion was expressed by Panah Huseyn, former Prime Minister of Azerbaijan in the period of Abulfaz Elchibey's presidency in the interview with the Chetin Sual (Difficult Question) program of Turan News Agency.

"In the history of independent Azerbaijan, Elchibey was the first and last democratically elected President. He was the founder and leader of the people's movement, which led to the restoration of the independence of Azerbaijan," Huseyn said.

Elchibey started the struggle for independence in the 1970s, for which he was arrested by KGB.

Being an ideologist of Azerbaijanism and Turkism, he was also the author of a democratic ideology based on the ideas of liberalism and national democracy.

"Although Abulfaz Elchibey lost to Heydar Aliyev in the struggle for power, in ideological, political and spiritual terms he defeated Aliyev and the regime that symbolizes Aliyev. The power is temporary, and the victory of Elchibey's ideas is eternal," Huseyn said.

Touching upon the achievements of President Elchibey, Huseyn pointed to the completion of the creation of the national army, the withdrawal of the Russian army from Azerbaijan, which was for the first time in the post-Soviet space, the introduction of the national currency, the adoption of the privatization program, the law on small nations, and the democratic electoral law.

Elchibey pursued a policy of integrating Azerbaijan into the international democratic community.

As for what Elchibey did not manage to do, this was a decision of the Karabakh conflict, the forced application of the state of emergency and military censorship after the occupation of the Kalbajar region.

He considers a strategic mistake of the Elchibey government the delay of democratic elections, despite the adoption of the law.

"In fact, the former Supreme Council played the role of a counter-revolution center.

We came to power in a revolutionary way, but the revolution was not brought to an end. And this largely caused our defeat," Huseyn said.

He refrained from comparing the Elchibey government with the current regime.

"The current government is an authoritarian and totalitarian regime, and a closed society. Models of Elchibey's power and the Aliyev system are antipodes.

It seems to me that either the current government will be completely transformed into totalitarianism, or it will be replaced in a revolutionary-democratic way in a near future," Huseyn said. -06D--