Yesterday, Elshad Abdullayev, the former rector of the Azerbaijan International University, released a new video implicating the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev in a bribery scandal. Earlier, Elshad Abdullayev had released video materials showing his negotiations with the senior government officials in 2005, when Elshad Abdullayev was trying to bribe Azerbaijan's Presidential Administration to buy a seat in the parliament through falsified elections. The series of secret cam videos released by Elshad Abdullayev became known as Gulargate scandal, named after the former member of the parliament Gular Ahmadova, who acted as a go-between in those videos representing the Azerbaijani President's Office. The newly posted video on the Gulargate bribery scandal directly implicates President Ilham Aliyev in personally taking bribes in exchange for seats in Azerbaijani parliament. Sevinj Babayeva, who was speaking on behalf of Ilham Aliyev told the following to Elshad Abdullayev: "President personally told that Elshad Abdullayeva should bring and put money on the table. It has to be delivered tonight. Even if he [Elshad Abdullayev] has to die, the money has to be delivered - it has to be delivered! Ilham [Aliyev] said so. It's not their fault. Ilham said he got only 3." The person who says these words on this video, Sevinj Babayeva, died in Turkey under mysterious circumstances shortly after she went into hiding there when first of these hidden video series was released. Gular Ahmadova herself was arrested following the release of the videos and expelled from the Azerbaijani parliament. She is currently held in pretrial detention pending the investigation on the bribery scandal.
Yesterday, during another round of the presidential election debates, Jamil Hasanli, the candidate of the united opposition forces of Azerbaijan, said the new video material showed that Ilham Aliyev was the one who took the bribes and sold the seats in the Azerbaijani parliament (Azeri Report).
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I welcome respected media representatives, professional and honest journalists from places of detention. July 22 is an important day for journalists, mass media and teachers of Azerbaijan. 149 years ago, Hassan Bey Zardabi, the great educator, the most valuable thinker, the founder of our journalism, lit the first light for society to come out of darkness, giving humanity the newspaper “AKINCI.”
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The past day has not clarified the question of why the meeting between Aliyev and Pashinyan in London on July18 broke down. The announcement of the upcoming meeting was made a week ago from Armenian sources, and Baku was silent about the upcoming meeting.
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I stand firmly in support of President Ilham Aliyev's vision for Azerbaijan's future.
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As Azerbaijan commemorates the 106th anniversary of its republic, Alasgar Mammadli, a prominent intellectual and lawyer, sends a poignant holiday greeting from the isolation ward of Kurdakhani Detention Center:
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