Head of National Council Holds Meeting at US Embassy

On Tuesday, the Chairman of the National Council of Democratic Forces, Professor Jamil Hasanli met at the US Embassy with the political advisors William Solly and Susan.

Jamil Hasanli told Turan the topic of the conversation at the meeting was the situation in Azerbaijan on the eve of the referendum on amendments to the Constitution, a new wave of repression of the opposition and civil society under the guise of fighting "religious extremism."

It was noted that most of the changes put on the referendum of September 26 are unconstitutional. They are designed to strengthen authoritarianism and create a virtually monarchical system.

Hasanli welcomed the statement by the representatives of the State Department, made a few days ago with the criticism of the new wave of repression and the need to obtain an estimate of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe on the proposed amendments to the Azerbaijani Constitution.

It was also noted that the proposed amendments were not put to public discussion, even though this is required by the law. All this testifies to the fact that the forthcoming referendum itself is unconstitutional, said Hasanli.

During the discussion of the situation around the events in Nardaran, the head of the National Council said the crisis in the village was the result of unreasonable and provocative actions of the authorities, and especially the Ministry of Interior. "All this was done in order to create an impression that this was an attempt to seize power by religious radicals," said the head of the National Council.

 However, the recently started trial has clearly shown that there was absolutely unjustified police violence against peaceful believers. When the Special Forces attacked the village, they shot dead two of their own employees in the shootout, but accused the believers of that.

Moreover, during the investigation the believers are tortured to make a confession of their armed resistance, said Hasanli.

‘The police tortured the leader of the believers, Taleh Bagirzadeh, trying to get a confession that the non-existent attempt to seize power was backed by the National Council and, in particular, by the leader of the Popular Front Party Ali Kerimli,’ said Hasanli.

Now the authorities are trying to use already a new religious card, trying to discredit the leader of PFPA and to find his non-existent ties with supporters of the cleric Fethullah Gulen.

‘The conversation on this topic was held in an atmosphere of humor,’ said Hasanli

‘The authorities want to see the upcoming referendum passed with absolutely no noise and without any objections in this regard. They have decided that the best way is to eliminate the surroundings of Ali Kerimli and all other opponents to the reactionary amendments to the Constitution.

This explains the arrest of the assistant to the PFPA leader Faig Amirov and the pressure on the newspaper Azadlig.

Amirov’s arrest is purely politically motivated and has no basis. This person does not have anything to do with any religion, not to mention the Gulen movement.

But as always, the authorities and especially law enforcement authorities demonstrated their incompetence and ignorance. Only this can explain that the religious books edited by the Attorney General of Azerbaijan have been presented by the investigation as proof of communication between Amirov and Gulen supporters!’ Hasanli said. -02B-