Soon the Ministry of Justice of Azerbaijan will register the oppositional Open Society Party.
“We have repeatedly met with the responsible persons of the Ministry and were assured that this question will be decided soon,” activist of OSP, Yagub Abbasov, told TrendNews on 29 August.
OSP was founded in April 2007. Ex-speaker of Azerbaijani Parliament, Rasul Guliyev, was the leader of the opposition Open Society Party. From 2000 to the February of 2007 Guliyev was the chairman of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan (DPA). Guliyev’s supporters left DPA, held their congress and founded the Open Society Party.

Announcement and Advertisement Council may be established in Azerbaijan. This issue was discussed during the meetings of the Azerbaijan Press Council’s Board in Turkey. On 26 August, a group of members of the Press Council left for Turkey on a five days visit. On 29 August, the meetings of the group focused on the development of the advertisement market of the Azerbaijani press.
The Deputy General Director of the Media Advertisements Council of Turkey, Behzat Erdogan, said to Azerbaijani representatives that the organization was established in 1961 to support daily public-political newspapers. The Council was approved by a special law of Turkey. The Council’s Board ensures objectivity and transparency in distribution of announcements and advertisements. The Board brings together 12 representatives from various editorial offices, scientific institutions and government. According to Law on Media Advertisements Council, all State organizations should place announcements and advertisements in the press only through the Council.

MP Fazil Gazanfaroglu, chairman of the Great Establishment party (GDP) and presidential contender, rejects the information of the Government renders its assistance to him to hold signature collection campaign. “Why the Government should assist us to collect signatures? Simply, there are some parties, which will not participate in the elections, well informed of our force, and for this reason they have to use our names,” Gazanfaroglu told Trend News.
Some opposition sources released the information of the Government assists certain candidates in collection of signatures.

Azerbaijani opposition Civil Solidarity party (CSP) has appealed to Mazahir Panahov, Chairman of the Central Election Commission (CEC). Our representatives, who were sent to District Election Commissions (DEC) are not allowed to be elected to the Secretariat. However, the representatives, who are close to the ruling New Azerbaijan party (NAP) are elected to the organization. If the process will not be prevented, we will recall our representatives from DEC,” MP Sabir Rustamkhanli, Chairman of CSP, told Trend News on 29 August.
Under the Election Code, the composition of election commissions are formed from representatives of parties, which representative majority (NAP), minority and from neutral MPs. For this reason the opposition Musavat party, which is united in the parliamentary minority, did not send its representatives to CEC, and the formation of DEC has not been completed so far.

Alibala Askarov, Chairman of Azerbaijanis Geyrat popular movement, considers the information of Georgian Azerbaijanis demand autonomy in Georgia groundless and provocative.
“Georgian Azerbaijanis never demand for autonomy in Georgia. Such information is spread by non-official source and is provocative,” Askarov told Trend News via a telephone from Tbilisi.
Media released the information that some national minorities, which reside in Georgia, use the territorial issue after recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia by Russia.
On 26 August, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, issued a decree to recognize the independence of S.Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The council of Armenian public organizations Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli made a statement to provide Samtskhe-Javakheti and other territories populated with Armenians self-governing status.

Ireli youth movement of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani school Caspian-Khazri in London are developing first joint project on education of children from children's homes in London.
“The chief goal of the project is to send three teenagers from Azerbaijan’s children’s homes to study in the Great Britain,” Simuzar Balaoglanova, head of the London schools said to TrendNews.
The pilot project is entitled Change the Future. “The young people will be provided with housing and food and there will be supervision over them,” head of Caspian-Khazri said.

The 23rd meeting of the special working group on the Convention on legal status of the Caspian Sea will be held on September 4-5 in Baku. Press service of Foreign Ministry told APA that the meeting would take place in Gulustan palace. The meeting had been scheduled for July 23-24, but was later postponed at the request of the participants. Delegations headed by deputy foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Russia and Iran will participate in the meeting. The text of the Convention on the status of the Caspian Sea will be discussed during the meeting.
Decision to hold special conference on the Caspian’s security was made in Tehran summit of the littoral states.

For the first time, an IT Club has launched operation in Azerbaijan to bring together IT professionals.
The Vice President of the Club, Murad Gasimbayli, said the not-for-profit club was established with support from Caspel and IBM.
According to him, the IT sector is the second developed field of the economy after the oil sector, but the IT-specialists have not had an opportunity to jointly discuss innovations in this area.

Head of the Observation Mission of OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), former Foreign Minister of Slovenia Boris Frlec will arrive in Baku on September 1.
OSCE Office in Baku told APA that seven more observers of the mission would also come to Azerbaijan along with Boris Frlec. Long-term observers will officially start activity as from September 7 and their number will reach 30 by the elections.

The Georgian Parliament approved a resolution calling on the government to break off diplomatic ties with Russia and to declare Russian troops, including peacekeepers in the country’s territory “illegal” and “occupying forces”. The request was made during an emergency session on August 28, APA quotes Georgian News.
The Government, said in the resolution should declare Abkhazia and South Ossetia under Russian occupation. The parliament urged the government to cancel all agreements which allowed Russian peacekeepers to stay in the country’s territory. According to the resolution Georgia remains devoted to the ceasefire agreement signed via mediation of European Union.

“The international law passed away and political interests rule the world now. Those are not the interests of countries, but political leaders”, said Director of Human Rights Institute of Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Rovshan Mustafayev at the round table of political scientists and human rights defenders dedicated to the situation in the South Caucasus, AAP reports. He said situation in the region was not univocal. “The scheme of 1945 can be realized again and this time Iran can be chosen to prevent Russia. In any case it is not useful scheme for Azerbaijan. Currently the United States intends to separate Armenia from Russia and uses Turkey for this purpose”. Mustafayev said 7-8 draft resolutions were submitted to the Armenian parliament for recognition of Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Russia closes its embassy in Georgia. Official Moscow has decided to take this step after Georgian government’s decision to break off diplomatic relations with Russia, source in Russian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti, APA reports. Russian Foreign Ministry officials have not confirmed the report yet.
On August 28 Georgian parliament passed a decision to break off diplomatic relations with Russia, announce Russian troops in Georgia as occupants and South Ossetia and Abkhazia as territories occupied by Russia.

Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov continues his visit to Turkey. APA reports that Foreign Minister met with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan. The meeting was closed for media.
Briefing journalists at Esenboga airport Elmar Mammadyarov said he would discuss Turkey’s initiative on establishing Caucasus Stability Pact with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan. Foreign Minister will also meet with President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan today.

David Grace, Secretary General of the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU), will visit Azerbaijan in September.
Elchin Baghirov, Chairman of Azerbaijan Credit Unions Association, told APA-Economics that he will have meetings at the National Bank of Azerbaijan, Milli Majlis and government agencies.
The principal objective of the visit is to have discussions about the country’s legal framework for credit unions and related issues.
The World Council of Credit Unions is the leading international trade association and development agency for credit unions. Founded in 1971, WOCCU emphasizes a savings-based approach to ensure long-term sustainability of credit unions.