APA interviews with the President of OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Joao Soares.

- Azerbaijan is going to have presidential elections this October. Will the OSCE PA send observer mission to Azerbaijan?

-Generally, we do not observe presidential elections because we concentrate on parliamentary elections- thereby highlighting the importance of strong parliamentary work. We only observe a restricted number of presidential elections on the basis of their competitiveness. There is also a question of a lack of resources -- we simply do not have enough staff and enough parliamentarians to observe every election in the OSCE area. This is why we are not planning to send an observation mission to Azerbaijan.

The permanent parliamentary commission of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis (the Azerbaijani Parliament) on economic policy considers the use of differential methods in financing of political parties out of public budget as acceptable. “In other words, parties, which gain 100,000 votes of electorate and win seats at the parliament, are financed in big amounts, whilst parties, which do not meet these requirements, will receive less money,” Ali Masimli, a member of the parliamentary, told Trend News on 23 July.
A total of 52 parties have been registered in Azerbaijan. At present a total of 12 political parties are represented in Milli Majlis.
Safa Mirzoyev, the head of Milli Majlis’s Administration, said that the issue on financing of the Azerbaijani political parties out of public budget would be examined while introducing supplements and changes in the Law on Political parties. Mirzoyev said that not all parties will be financed by the government. Means will be allocated to parties, which gain a definite victory in the parliamentary elections, and political organizations which gained 4 or 5% of votes inside the country.

The Armenians have destroyed about 800 mosques in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan. “It is terrible. This is barbarism, Rabiyat Aslanova, chairman of the standing parliament commission on human rights of Azerbaijan said in Baku on 23 July during the meeting with the delegation of Museum of Tolerance of Los-Angeles led by Abraham Cooper.
According to Aslanova, the Armenians have destroyed the Azerbaijani cemeteries as well. “However, the Armenian churches in Azerbaijan are still protected. There are five Armenian Grigorian churches in our country. One of them is situated in the center of Baku. We, unlike Armenians, are not barbarians,” Aslanova said and added that once Armenians lived in Azerbaijan under same conditions with the other confessions.

Democratic Reforms Party (DRP) and National Democratic Institution (NDI) of US will launch joint projects related to the forthcoming presidential elections, NDI press service told the APA. NDI Director on Azerbaijan Arien de Wolff and chairman of the DRP Asim Mollazadeh came to an agreement during their meeting. Meanwhile, the sides exchanged views on socio-political state of Azerbaijan on the eve of presidential elections, preparation for the elections, and joint projects.

Russian magazine Moscow Defense Brief published a list of military techniques acquired by Azerbaijan in 2000-2007.
According to APA, Azerbaijan was the first to place an order for the new Russian BTR-90, signing a contract last year with the Arzamas Machine Building Plant for delivery in 2008 of a few BTR-90s and 70 BTR-80A. “One of the conditions of the agreement reached in 2002 over the status of the Gabala radar station was the provision of military assistance to modernize Azerbaijan’s air force and air defense systems, the training of Azeri military in Russia, and repair services for military equipment. Turkey has provided the greatest amount of aid, reaching a total of 170 million USD in 2005. Azerbaijan has also purchased small arms and modern communications equipment from American and Israeli firms on a purely commercial basis. Azerbaijan is now putting the emphasis on acquiring new aviation equipment for its air force.

Dr. Ken Yamashita, USAID Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Europe and Eurasia, will be on visit to Azerbaijan during July 24-29.
The USAID Office in Baku said Ken Yamashita will meet with USAID partner organizations will visit USAID-funded projects implementers in Baku and southern regions of Azerbaijan.
In March 2008, Dr. S. Ken Yamashita was appointed Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Bureau for Europe and Eurasia (E&E), U.S. Agency for International Development. In his current post, Yamashita serves as E&E’s chief operating officer, overseeing program and management systems for the Bureau’s $700 million annual budget to assist 23 countries in Europe and Eurasia. Yamashita’s responsibilities include strategic planning, policy and program implementation, and financial, human and administrative resource management. He also directly supervises USAID programs in eleven Eurasian countries of the former Soviet Union.

Broadcasting Council of Public TV held assembly on July 23, Alasgar Mammadli, the lawyer of IREX organization for support to media, told the APA. The participants of the event discussed several issues related to the work principal of the Public TV on the eve of the presidential elections, and some other aspects about election legislation. According to Mammadli, the issue related to providing air time for candidates was also the focus of attention during the meeting.

The Election Headquarters of the Association for Civil Society Development in Azerbaijan (ACSDA) expands its activity in regions on the eve of the presidential elections. The delegation headed by Maharram Zulfugarli, the head of the Election Headquarters, plans to hold meetings related to the preparations for the forthcoming elections in all the regional offices during July.
Members of the Headquarters held meetings in the regional offices of the Association in Khachnaz, Guba, Goychay, Mingachevir and Ganja, Shamakhi, Ismayilli and Shaki on 12-23 July, 2008. The participants of the meetings got information about the latest changes to the Election Code, proposals of Venice Commission, measures taken in regions related to the monitoring of the elections. Besides, the regional offices of the ACSDA were given several instructions and tasks related to the monitoring of the elections.