Azerbaijani authorities should follow their predecessors

In the fight against corruption  the Azerbaijani leadership  act like their  predecessors, the founders of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ANR 1918-20), said at today's conference on the problems of politics and economics in the post-Soviet space, organized by the Center for National and International Studies.

In particular, they noted that the Prime Minister of the ANR, Fatalikhan Khoyski resigned when he learned about the corrupt practices of one of his ministers. However, over the past 100 years, or during the Soviet period, nor in the post-Soviet period in Azerbaijan, no minister  resign for corruption, and such a democratic culture has not been formed.

The conference  participants noted that the APR was distinguished by  its high standards of democratic governance, and the  absence of the concept of "conflict of interests".

According to the Leyla Aliyeva,  soviet stereotypes  are still strong in today's Azerbaijan and people put up with the presence of corruption, believing that "embezzlement  is indestructible."

The Dr. of the  Hudson University, Charles Fairbanks, speaking about the political and economic centers in the post-Soviet period, noted that the authorities of these countries have a fear that they will lose the power of leaving the property.

"The authorities are afraid that they will be demanded  to report of the origin of property. That's why they can not give up the power and are aggressive to the opposition," said the expert.

In the absence of legitimacy corruption reaches high proportions. He mentioned  the  former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze, who admitted that after coming to power, he gave the opportunity to his entourage  to enrich, said Fairbanks.

At the same time, Mikhail Saakashvili proved that corruption does not depend on the culture, and the political will. His government quickly overcame corruption at lower and middle levels. However, at a high level Saakashvili did not eradicate corruption, because it did not need it.

At the same time, the Baltic countries eradicated corruption at the highest level.

According to the analyst  of Turan news agency,  Togrul Cuvarly, the Azerbaijani society has lost its optimism. "There  is not diversified economy,  and we observe the opposite. Today, economic, and political figures  are the same people," said Cuvarly.

Ramazan  Gezan, the  Doctor of Turkish Yildirim Bayazit University, said that in recent decades, Turkey has weakened the military control over the economy and politics: Adnan Menderes, Turgut Ozal, and Tayyip Erdogan,  manage to conduct liberal reforms step-by-step.

 At  the same time,  currently there is a struggle between the Ataturk-forces and clerics  in the Turkish economy, he said.

This conference is planned in one of the hotels in Baku, but at the last moment its management refused to provide a hall.

Since the beginning of this year, the civil society of Azerbaijan has faced serious challenges in search of locations for events. Most of the hotels and business centers refuse to provide premises. -03C06-