Panah Huseyn: Government Officials Should Be Removed from Economy

Former Prime Minister (1993) and Chairman of the People's Party Panah Huseyn in an interview with Turan commented on the dialogue between the opposition and the authorities.

He recalled that offer to hold such meetings every two months came from the department head of the presidential administration, Ali Hasanov. It's been more than two months after the first meeting, but the new one is not planned.

"According to some reports, the issues suggested earlier are studied, and perhaps they will come to a decision," he said vaguely.

Huseyn said such meetings are "attempts" to create the conditions for dialogue. "The main and most important condition for dialogue is release of political prisoners without any preconditions," he said.

Referring to the upcoming parliamentary elections, he said that 8 political parties united in a bloc called Azadlig-2015. The bloc proposed electoral reform, and it is possible that at the next meeting this very topic will be discussed.

Commenting on the statement that 8 parties went to the "dialogue" in order to bargain seats in parliament for themselves, Huseyn said that the main purpose of the opposition is participation in the elected administration, in particular, in Parliament. "In this sense, some degree of agreement and compromise with the authorities is not excluded," he said, adding that this should not be perceived as getting the mandate in exchange for loyalty.

On the question whether Panah Huseyn believes in the sincerity of the authorities in the negotiations, he said that both the opposition and the authorities have an interest. Of course, the authorities increasingly use these meetings to simulate, and the opposition wants real results. At the same time, in the process they can come to a common denominator.

In this sense, it would be rational to create a Crisis Group, which will be able to discuss all the issues, said Huseyn.

Can we expect that the government will go to real reform? In answering this question, Huseyn said that the current government is not a reformist. However, the depressing situation in the economy, and especially in the financial and economic area, dictates the need for change.

"First and foremost, it is necessary to achieve the collapse of the bureaucratic-oligarchic system. It is necessary to remove as far as possible from each other political and economic power. To do this, officials that illegally monopolize economic sectors should be removed from their positions. This can be done by the President and his administration, but the force is now on the conservative side," said Huseyn. -03B-