Another plenary sitting of the current extraordinary parliamentary session went under the chairmanship of Speaker Sahiba Gafarova on 11 June.

Having opened the plenum, the Chair of the Parliament remarked that approaching remarkable events in the history of Azerbaijan were always marked at the sessions of the Milli Majlis. So, she added, so, the current sitting, too, was taking place on the cusp of the anniversary of the event that changed the tide in the Azerbaijani history. Our people will be celebrating the National Salvation Day of the Azerbaijanis in a few days’ time.

Leaders of nations are known to come on history’s stage at the times when peoples are facing national disasters. Heydar Aliyev’s return to political and state administration on the insistence of the nation on 15 June 1993 fended off the imminent threat of fragmentation and demise of Azerbaijan, which was then standing merely a step from the brink of the cliff, according to Mrs Gafarova.

His political will, determination, creative approach to the challenges of the time and ability to make right decisions ensured that the people were able to seize on the opportunity history had given it to establish a state of its own and then preserve it and make it viable. The National Leader’s work of that period is encapsulated with precision in his following utterance: ‘History has proven time and again that it is an exceedingly hard and complex task to preserve independence as an irreplaceable national property.’

Sahiba Gafarova went further to say that the political and state activities of Heydar Aliyev embodied and exemplified a loyal service to one’s nation and the preparedness to sacrifice anything for it. Given the administration of the country by our National Leader in a period spanning over thirty years, one can safely say that the Azerbaijan Republic of today is the brainchild of Heydar Aliyev’s genius, she added.

The mission of salvation and creation begun by the Great Leader continues nowadays with the same resolution and will put to use. Our esteemed President, the victorious Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev is pursuing the far-sighted domestic and foreign policies that have led Azerbaijan up to the summits of today. The 44 days’ Patriotic War was crowned with the wresting of our history-proven native land of Garabagh from the Armenian occupation thanks to his political, diplomatic mastery and gifted captainship. The historical fairness and territorial integrity of our nation thus recovered have brought forth the new realia in the South Caucasus.

Azerbaijan is a powerful state whose word counts in a large portion of the world now; the Azerbaijani State will abide forever; as the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev once said, it ‘will last as long as the eternity itself will do.’

Closing her speech, Madame Chair sent the heartfelt congratulation to the MPs and the people of Azerbaijan as a whole on the National Salvation Day. She wished the Azerbaijani State continuous progress and further achievements under the leadership of the esteemed President Ilham Aliyev.

Madame Speaker’s speech was met with applause.

The issues du jour were talked about after the agenda of the sitting had been adopted. The parliamentary committee chairmen Zahid Oruj and Tahir Rzayev as well as the MPs Elman Nasirov, Jeyhun Mammadov, Sahib Aliyev, Vahid Ahmadov, Sevil Mikayilova, Shahin Seyidzade, Elshad Mirbashiroglu, Naghif Hamzayev and Javid Osmanov shared their views of the agenda items. They also brought up certain concerns of their electors and told of the efforts being made to address the sources of concern.

Also, the MPs shared their innermost thoughts of the National Salvation Day; they intimated that it was one of the most crucial days that had predetermined the course of national history and decided the fate of the country. On 15 June 1993, Azerbaijan was rescued from fragmentation and delivered from the crisis then holding sway in it. The power and might of Azerbaijan of today and its sparkling victory in the Patriotic War were all incepted by the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev on that particular day, they said.

Deliberations on the items on the agenda of the sitting followed.

Speaker Sahiba Gafarova announced the nine items. The first one was the Bill containing amendments to the laws ‘On the Status of the military personnel’, ‘On Perpetuating the Shahid Title and on the Concessions for the Shahid Families’ and ‘On the status and Social Protection of the Chernobyl Disaster Liquidators with Damaged Health’. It was said that the amendments were adaptive in nature, and were going to be adopted in one reading only.

The overview of the amendments was given by Arzu Naghiyev of the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee. He said that the amendment dated 29 December 2020 to the Law ‘On the Social Benefits’ and the Azerbaijani President’s decree dated 31 December 2020 had led to the deletion from the said law of the formulations concerning several citizen categories. Those are the shahid children; the persons handicapped during the war or the events of the 20^th of January 1990; the children whose parents are either dead or attributed to the 1^st and 2^nd disability categories consequent to the Chernobyl Disaster; and the dispensary-registered children of the Chernobyl Disaster liquidators. Besides, the same law had a formulation that had read ‘the maintenance allowance for the children below the age of 16 (18 in the case of intramural secondary school pupils) whose parents are assigned to the certain categories established by the appropriate executive authority body’. That formulation had been replaced with the wording ‘the maintenance allowance for the children of the Basic Military Service personnel’. The allowances for the people falling into the aforementioned categories had been raised pursuant to the presidential decrees Nos 1225, 1228 and 1230 dated 30 December 2020 consequent to the above amendments.

As for the amendments currently tabled, they are intended to unify those said laws with the Azerbaijan Republic Law amending the Law ‘On the Social Benefits’.

Chairman of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev remarked as he was commenting on the present agenda item that it was another sign of Mr President’s care of the people in those social groups. Mr Guliyev went on to announce that the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population had started a humanist and socially-important mission – the Employment Marathon – yesterday. The goal of the marathon is to have members of the families of all the Patriotic War shahids, gazies and veterans employed till the end of the current year. The Committee Chairman called on all the organisations, departments, enterprises and overseas companies active in our country to take an active part in the marathon then.

The Bill was put on vote, voted for and approved subsequently.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis said then that the remaining items on the agenda were the Bills due to be tabled in the second reading; the very next seven had been submitted to the Milli Majlis in one parcel and were interlinked substantively. The parcel contains amendments to 60 laws, all intended to align the national legislation regarding disabilities with the standards implemented by the World Health Organisation and with other international norms.

Chairman of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev then tabled the second-reading amendments to the law ‘On the Rights of Disabled Persons’ and to the other related laws. He said that the MPs had backed the package during the first reading. Also, a few remarks had been made; so, Mr Guliyev made certain he commented on them now.

Musa Guliyev recalled the continual increases of the social spending at the initiative of the Head of the State over the three years past. The pension, benefit and allowance spending had been raised from AZN 3.3 bn by 36% to AZN 4.6 bn, from AZN 279 mn by 120% to AZN 613 mn and from AZN 92 mn to AZN 326 mn (3.5 times, that is) respectively in the said period. The annual State Budget expenses associated with benefits, allowances and targeted state social aid had grown by 97%, to wit, from AZN 588 mn to AZN 1.2 bn. Mr Guliyev mentioned that the overall public payments channelled via the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection of the Population had risen by AZN 2.2 bn over the past three years.

The Committee Chairman also brought up the subject of determining the disability categories for the Garabagh War gazies. He said that more than 800 gazies had had their categories assigned to them, with the relevant social protection arrangements being made already.

Because disability is a dynamic process that requires constant observation, treatment and rehabilitation, it is quite normal and logical that the next due checks of the people with the already-determined disability degrees might result in changes in both their conditions and statuses this year. What matters the most is that such decisions should be fair and transparent, and be passed within the boundaries drawn by the law. And the Bill that is brought up before the House serves that purpose precisely.

Commentaries and remarks regarding the tabled amendments were made by the committee chairmen Bakhtiyar Aliyev, Siyavush Novruzov, Tahir Mirkishili and Zahid Oruj as well as the MPs Ali Masimli, Vugar Bayramov, Bahrouz Maharramov, Gudrat Hasanguliyev, Aydin Mirzazade, Sabir Rustamkhanli, Aydin Huseynov, Aghil Abbas and Vahid Ahmadov. And then, Musa Guliyev shed light upon some issues they had broached.

The MPs voted on each of the seven agenda items one by one, and approved them all in the second reading as the deliberations were over. Those documents were as follows:

the draft amendments to the Law the Rights of Disabled Persons’;  

the draft amendments to the Law ‘On Retirement Pensions’;

the draft amendments to the Labour, Civil, Civil Procedural, Family, Criminal, Tax, Housing, Migration, Land and Sentence Enforcement Codes as well as the Code of Administrative Offences;

the draft amendments to the Laws ‘On the Status and Social Protection of the Chernobyl Disaster Liquidators with Damaged Health’, ‘On the Immune Prophylactics of Infectious Diseases’, ‘On the Narcological Service and the Narcological Control’, ‘On the (Special) Education for Persons with Health Limitations’, ‘On the State Care of Diabetes Mellitus Patients’, ‘On Blood and Blood Component Donation, and the Blood Service’, ‘On the State Care of Persons with Hereditary Blood Diseases – Haemophilia and Thalassemia’, ‘On the Targeted State Social Aid’, ‘On Social Benefits’, ‘On the Oncological Aid’, ‘On the Social Service’, ‘On Culture’, ‘On the Compulsory Periodic Paediatric Wellness Checks’, ‘On Preschool Education’, ‘On Employment’ and ‘On Vocational Education’;

the draft amendments to the Laws ‘On Perpetuating the Shahid Title and on the Shahid Household Benefits’, ‘On the Social Insurance’, ‘On the Police’, ‘On the Shorter Hours Worked by Certain Civil Servant Categories’, ‘On the Compulsory Insurance of Persons Serving with the Azerbaijan Republic Diplomatic Stations in Foreign Countries and with International Institutions’, ‘On the Insurance Practice’, ‘On the Non-State (private) Security Activity’, ‘On the Social Adaptation of Persons Relieved of Penitentiary Sentence Service’ and ‘On the Protection of the Rights and Liberties of Persons Held in Detention Facilities’;

the draft amendments to the Laws ‘On the Place of Abode Registration’, ‘On the Status of a Member of the Milli Majlis of the Azerbaijan Republic’, ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of Military Servicemen’, ‘On Courts of Law and Judges’, ‘On Protection of the Population Health’, ‘On the Adoption of the Military Service Charter’, ‘On the Rights of Children’, ‘On the Motor Traffic’, ‘On the State Protection of Persons Engaged in Criminal Proceedings’, ‘On the Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care’, ‘On the Compulsory State Personal Insurance of the Judicial and Law Enforcement Personnel’, ‘On Motorways’, ‘On the Action against Tuberculosis in the Azerbaijan Republic’, ‘On the Psychiatric Aid’, ‘On the Compulsory Insurance Classes’ and ‘On the State Care of Multiple Sclerosis Patients’;  

and the draft amendments to the Laws ‘On the Civil Service’, ‘On the State Duty’, ‘On Execution’, ‘On the Youth Policy’, ‘On the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and their Precursors’ and ‘On Physical Culture and Sports’.

That was followed by the second reading of the draft amendments to the State Duty Law, tabled by Vugar Bayramov o the Economic Policy, Industries and Enterprising Committee. The amendments are drawn up to improve yet further the social situation of the people registered as handicapped at war. Specifically, as Mr Bayramov made clear, it is proposed to exempt them from state duties for lawsuits and flat (house) sales-and-purchases.

The committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov spoke about the amendments and voiced his relevant suggestions; then, the Bill was voted through the second reading.

Next, the House were discussing the National Salvation Day on the 15^th of June – a date of immense importance in the historical fate of the Azerbaijani people. In their speeches, the committee chairmen Zahid Oruj and Siyavush as well as of MP Isa Habibbayli concerned themselves with the highlights in Azerbaijan’s independence history. They broached the issue of the services of the independent Azerbaijan’s founder and National Leader Heydar Aliyev before our state and nation alike, and said that it was on 15 June 1993 that the people of Azerbaijan set foot on the path along which they had been ushered to the Victory of 10 November 2020. Last year was one in which the dreams of Heydar Aliyev came true. In 2020, we could all witness the victory of the Commander-in-Chief and esteemed President Ilham Aliyev, a dignified continuer of Heydar Aliyev’s cause.

The speakers emphasised that the policy that President Ilham Aliyev followed today was wholly adequate for our independence to become yet stronger, the domestic policy and progress of Azerbaijan to remain in place, and the international stance of the country to add in firmness and influence. It was further noted that the strategy of the Great Return to the de-occupied territories ensues from the National Salvation and, in this sense, is an extension of the policy pursued by Heydar Aliyev.

Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova again celebrated the MPs and the mass media people on the National Salvation Day on 15 June and with that, the plenum of the Milli Majlis was over.

The Press and Public Relations Department  
The Milli Majlis