Chairman of the Disciplinary Commission of the Milli Majlis Eldar Ibrahimov said as he was opening the commission meeting on 28 April that they were to assess, as requested by Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, the comments MP Vahid Ahmadov had made in his recent press interview.

Mr Ibrahimov stressed that Azerbaijan, led by its President Ilham Aliyev, chaired at such an influential international organisation as the Non-Aligned Movement is, and it is inadmissible of an MP commanding the experience that Vahid Ahmadov has to speak about the national Parliament the way he had done.

Disciplinary Commission members Nizami Jafarov, Sattar Mehbaliyev, Nasib Mahamaliyev, Mashhur Mammadov, Afat Hasanova and Mader Musayev as well as DC Secretary Nurlan Hasanov said that Members of Parliament have a statutory right to give press interviews and this right of theirs may not be restricted. However, MPs should not express such opinions in their interviews that are inconsistent with the parliamentary ethics, which they are obliged to follow. MPs should think more about the interests of the people and the state than their own image; they ought to take into account the fact that what thoughts they express could be used against us by forces hostile to the country.

MP Vahid Ahmadov spoke at the meeting as well.

The outcome of that meeting was that the Commission imposed a disciplinary sanction on MP Vahid Ahmadov – he was reprimanded on the basis of Article 45(1) of the Milli Majlis Internal Regulations.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis