Speaker Sahiba Gafarova chaired the scheduled plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis on 9 March.

Speaking at the start of the sitting, Madame Speaker touched on the VII congress of the New Azerbaijan Party held on 5 March, on which occasion she congratulated all the party members wholeheartedly. The NAP Chairman and President of the Azerbaijan Republic Mr Ilham Aliyev had taken the floor at that congress, and due attention was paid in his ample programme speech to the party’s inception history linked inseparably with the name of the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev and to the role of the party in the social and political progress of the country. Also there, Ilham Aliyev brought up the issue of enhancing the political, economic and military potentials of Azerbaijan and of it having become an influential state reckoned with globally. Besides, President Aliyev laid out the tasks lying ahead.

‘We are saying proudly today that the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan have solved the paramount problem of the country under the guidance of Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev by liberating our lands after close to thirty years of Armenian occupation and making the national territory whole again. This, in turn, has given birth to a completely new geopolitical situation, in our country and in the region alike. As our esteemed President said, we absolutely ought to mind how we tread so we are always victorious and the flag of Azerbaijan flies high above,’ Mrs Gafarova was saying.

Then, Mrs Gafarova told the House of the string of key resolutions and fundamental structural and staff changes made at the NAP congress. She remarked with pleasure that, pursuant to the new NAP Charter, Mehriban Aliyeva is appointed First Deputy Chair of the party pursuant to the relevant decree of President Ilham Aliyev. Mrs Gafarova congratulated Mrs Aliyeva on behalf of all the adherers, wishing her success in this glorious position of importance and responsibility. She also congratulated those party members who had been elected to leadership posts, adding with confidence that their work would justify the high trust placed in them.

The New Azerbaijan Party had come to the scene to the call of history as a force that proved capable of carrying the popular desires and aspirations into life. This party has attained its current elevated status in the national political life having issued forth from the solid foundation being a fusion of patriotism, confederacy, state independence, sovereignty and the ideals of the Azerbaijanism, Mrs Gafarova emphasised. The party members will rally around the NAP Chairman and President Ilham Aliyev yet more vigorously from now on in order to support his important cause and the new creativity policy; they will continue giving their strength and energies to the common purpose in the name of the happy future of Azerbaijan.

Talking about army matters then, Mrs Gafarova remarked that the build-up of the national military posture, the integrated development of the Armed Forces and their modernisation were invariably in the focus of the state leadership. The situation and achievements of our valiant Army have been discussed and praised highly at the sittings and meetings of the Milli Majlis, too. Occupying its well-deserved place amongst the strongest armies of the world now, the Azerbaijani Army have added the new and brilliant pages to the national and global military chronicles during the Patriotic War.

Madame Speaker emphasised that the prevalence over the Armenian Fascism was achieved not by the technological outfitting of the national Armed Forces but by the fortitude, bravery and devotion of the soldiers and officers, and this should never be forgotten. As the esteemed President Aliyev had said, ‘this victory is not brought us by technical contraptions; rather, it is won by our privates and officers… the Azeri soldier and the Azeri officer are the foremost heroes of this victory and everybody ought to know this.’

Improving the servicemen’s situation and strengthening their welfare add up to one of the topmost vectors of the military policy implemented in our country; the State pays the men termed salary mark-ups in view of the specificity of the post-war service and the gravity of the social and domestic conditions, according to Mrs Gafarova.

The plenum participants were told then that the military force on duty along the state border with Armenia and in the area of deployment of the Russian peace-making corps in Azerbaijan’s Garabagh Region enjoy the mark-ups accounting for 100% of their salaries while the salary mark-ups assigned to those serving in the de-occupied provinces where no infrastructure has been built yet is 50%. Those mark-ups were assigned by the decision resulting from the process that had taken a certain amount of time.

‘All this spells the unabated state care embracing the military personnel. It shows also that addressing their problems will remain at the centre of the state attention,’ Mrs Gafarova concluded.

The speech of Madame Chair was followed by the approval of the eight-item agenda of the sitting. The MPs Kamaladdin Gafarova, Azay Guliyev, Javid Osmanov, Ali Masimli, Zahid Oruj, Soltan Mammadov, Etibar Aliyev, Sahib Aliyev, Bahrouz Maharramov and Fazil Mustafa shared their views of the national and global diary entries of the day as the current issues were discussed. A number of motions were made, too.

The deliberations upon the agenda items that ensued began with the hearing of the annual report by the authority responsible for the administrative control of the municipalities. The 2020 report was tabled by Deputy Minister of Justice Vilayat Zahirov.

Mr Zahirov started with the mention of the Victory that our triumphant Army had secured under the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief in the 44-day Patriotic War, saying that justice and judicial officials and municipality members had demonstrated self-forgetfulness in combat, too. The Ministry of justice spared no resources to extend the financial, moral and medical support to our Army, to the wounded and to the families of the fallen warriors during the war. At the same time, the almost 400 appeals depicting the reality of the Armenian occupation and crimes against humanity were sent to overseas ministries of justice and prosecution authorities as well as to influential international organisations. The Ministry had up and going the e-information platform ‘Garabagh is Azerbaijan!’ in three languages (Azerbaijani, Russian and English) at http://justice.gov.az/categories/1148 to tell the world of the just stance of our country. A certain kind of work was done with the municipalities to employ their capabilities to spread the word of truth about our country and to unveil the Armenian propaganda, too.

Mr Zahirov then told the House that the endeavours were continued despite all the pandemic quarantine restrictions to make the municipalities’ work more efficient as well as to eliminate and prevent certain irregularities throughout 2020.

When one refers to efficiency enhancement, one should recall the legislative amendments that were passed with that purpose in mind precisely as well as the guides put together to help the local self-government authorities, including giving them methodological support, all of which was accomplished last year, Mr Zahirov continued.

The Ministry of Justice considered 79,858 municipal acts by way of administrative control last year; also last year, the Ministry of Justice of the Nakhchivan AR revised 2,670 such acts more, and both processes incorporated legal expert checks. As many as 95,700 of the examined acts were found compatible with the legislation; the concerned municipalities were told either to adjust or to abolish the remaining 2,939 ones. Consequently, 1,416 such acts were reversed and 1,316 were amended appropriately. Lawsuits were initiated regarding 13 propositions on which the municipalities had failed to act; 2 of them were carried out duly as a result.

Also in 2020, the Ministry considered 3,206 appeals about the work done by the municipalities; 164 were granted either in full or in part, which represents an increase by 17 per cent from 2019. Furthermore, administrative offence protocols were drafted with regards to 172 municipality office-holders and administrative action was taken against 138 municipality chairs eventually.

The administrative controlling action undertaken last year brought 8,217 hectares of land back to either under control or in ownership of the affected municipalities; disputes about 2,261 hectares of land allotments are under the consideration of courts of law currently.

Noting in conclusion of his report that the municipalities of Azerbaijan had been active since 1999, Mr Zahirov referred to that no municipal elections were conducted in the more than 950 previously-occupied communities, which deprived their former members and then internally displaced people of their constitutional right to self-governance. Those constitutional rights of our compatriots will be restored to them once they are able to return to their homes when the liberated lands are restored and rebuilt and equipped with proper infrastructure: municipal elections will be conducted and local self-government authorities will be established in due course. The Ministry of Justice is working on the relevant tasks it has on its own agenda, Mr Zahirov concluded.

Next, a member of the parliamentary Committee for Regional Affairs Nizami Jafarov remarked that the Committee had discussed that report extensively. MP Jafarov shared his relevant thoughts as well.

As the discussions went, both the annual report and the administrative control over the municipalities by the above-said authority were received favourably by First Deputy Speaker Ali Huseynli, Deputy Speaker Adil Aliyev, Committee Chairmen Siyavush Novruzov and Tahir Rzayev and the MPs Sabir Rustamkhanli, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Kamran Bayramov, Azer Badamov, Erkin Gadirli, Ali Masimli and Razi Nurullayev. They highlighted the high professionalism with which the report had been crafted and let their remarks and suggestions about improving the municipalities’ work be known.

The annual report tabled by Mr Zahirov was noted eventually.

As regards the Bills on the agenda of the parliamentary sitting, they were introduced to the assembly by a member of the Committee for Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Mashhur Mammadov, Chair of the Committee for Family, Women’s and Children’s Affairs Hijran Huseynova, a member Of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Nurlan Hasanov, a member of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Vugar Bayramov, a member of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Kamal Jafarov, Chairman of the Committee for Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Sadig Gurbanov and First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis, Chairman of the Law Policy and State-Building Committee Ali Huseynli.

The tabled draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Suspension of Business Enterprise Checks’ as well as to the Family and the Civil Procedure Codes were approved in the third reading.

Three items were considered in the second reading then. The House first approved on the merits and then voted in article by article the draft amendments to the Labour and Administrative Offences Codes of the Azerbaijan Republic as well as to the Laws ‘On the Electrical Energy Industry’, ‘On Gas Supplies’, ‘On Water Supplies and Wastewater’, ‘On Regulations of Business Enterprise Checks and Protection of Enterprisers’ Interests’ and ‘On the Suspension of Business Enterprise Checks’. The three Bills were thus endorsed in the second reading.

In conclusion, the MPs discussed the draft amendments to the Enforcement Law, which, they were briefed, was related to the enforcement of the 2019 Law ‘On Amending the Tax Code of the Azerbaijan Republic’. The fundamental amendments consisting of as many as 162 articles were incorporated in the Tax Code at the time, whilst the current Bill is of the standardising nature, it was said.

The Bill was put on vote and approved in the first reading following the deliberations.

The MPs Tahir Karimli, Sadig Gurbanov, Bakhtiyar Aliyev, Rufat Guliyev and Gudrat Hasanguliyev spoke at the debate on the Bills tabled during the plenum, too.  

The plenary sitting of the Milli Majlis drew to a close at that.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis