Azerbaijani Politician Might Pay a High Price for Cooperating with Armenians

If Azerbaijan adopts a bill on “Azerbaijan’s Occupied Territories,” the leader of the Musavat party might be held criminally liable, said Whole Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (PNFTSA) Deputy Chair Elchin Mirzabeyli, who introduced the bill, in an interview with Trend news agency.

According to him, Article 7 of the document states that “With the exception of the central executive bodies, which, according to the Milli Mejlis decision, are given the appropriate authority, and representatives of diplomatic missions who participated in peace negotiations to free Azerbaijan’s occupied territories, all the other individuals deemed to be Azerbaijani citizens who collaborated with government agencies, as well as judicial and legislative bodies, political parties, public associations, mass media, as well as private businesses and NGOs of the aggressor country shall bear criminal responsibility.”

According to Mirzabeyli, the law will not be into effect retroactively; that is, it cannot be applied to processes occurring in the past. “But if today there are the results of legal contracts signed by Isa Gambar and the bill remains in force, then of course the law could be applied to [Musavat leader] Isa Gambar and to everyone, in general, without exception.”

Recall, in Oct. 2010, Musavat, Pan-Armenian National Movement and Georgia’s Republican party, on the outskirts of a meeting of liberal parties in the German city of Potsdam, signed a joint declaration on cooperation, which demanded the release of political prisoners in Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan.