Speaker Sahiba Gafarova chaired another sitting of the extraordinary parliamentary session on 22 June.

Before the sitting proper could begin, the Chair of the Milli Majlis shared her thoughts of the recent visit of the President of Turkey Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan to our country recently as well as his having come to the Azerbaijani Parliament and spoken to the MPs.  

The Turkish Republic has covered a remarkable path of progress and has achieved striking successes in all the segments of its public and state life under the leadership of Mr Erdogan, a prominent politician and statesman, according to Madame Chair.

Today, Turkey is holding its rightful place amongst the strongest states of the world thanks to its political, economic and military might. Such ascension of the fraternal country naturally gladdens us to the core; after all, the power of Turkey is also that of Azerbaijan whilst the power of Azerbaijan means, in turn, the power of Turkey.

Based on shared values, the sincere relationship between Azerbaijan and Turkey represents a unique phenomenon internationally; our peoples’ friendship and fraternity add up to our biggest and most cherished asset. We are always happy to say that our relationship builds up on the ‘one nation – two states’ principle stated by the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev.

As President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan said, ‘The friendship, the brotherhood of Turkey and Azerbaijan has achieved their summits today, and we stand by each other invariably in all matters.’

The Chair of the Milli Majlis went further to emphasise that our peoples were united as a whole both at the time of the Çanakkale Victory (in the Dardanelles Campaign) and the liberation of Baku from the Armenian-Bolshevik grip at the turn of the 20^th century and upon the debacle of the Armenian Fascism in the Patriotic War in the waning months of the year 2020. They are a coherent whole today, too, and will remain unified for evermore. The world could once again witness the Turkish-Azerbaijani friendship and fraternity as the military operation was conducted by our heroic Army led by the triumphant Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev to reclaim our historically ancestral lands from the thirty-year-long Armenian occupation and to wave the Azerbaijani Flag in Garabagh.

From the very first hours of the war and to the last, the President of the Turkish Republic Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan was providing us with moral and political support and Turkey as a whole, the whole of the Turkish people held a categorical standpoint. That showed each and every one that Azerbaijan was not solitary in its just struggle. Turkey and its leader are always by Azerbaijan’s side – everywhere and ever.

Further, Madame Chair remarked that Azerbaijan’s victory in the Garabagh War II had given rise to a new kind of reality in the South Caucasus. Right now, the projects altering the geopolitical landscape of the whole region are being carried into life seamlessly and determinedly, and through a combined effort of Azerbaijan and Turkey.

As Madame Speaker pointed out, President Erdogan having visited the lands rescued from the invaders’ grip in general and gone to Shusha in particular, the fact that the star-and-crescent’d flags of both Azerbaijan and Turkey are flying and fluttering in that town, the gem and crown of the Azerbaijani culture and, as importantly, the meetings that the leaders of the two brotherly states had had made the world see the fraternity of our peoples once more. Inasmuch as the alliance treaty signed between Turkey and Azerbaijan is concerned, then, it has set new and yet higher standards for the mutual relations.

The speech of President Erdogan in the Milli Majlis came as another token of the inviolacy of the bonds of fraternity and amity of Turkey and Azerbaijan. Notably, President Erdogan also sent several messages, the essential one being that Turkey supports Azerbaijan with all its might now and – let the whole world know it – Turkey will remain right by Azerbaijan’s side tomorrow as well.

Closing her address to the House, Sahiba Gafarova noted that the concord of our peoples is of the order tested by the centuries past and is a source of pride for us today. One can safely assert, then, that the Azerbaijani-Turkish relations will go on to progress yet faster and will bring our peoples and our states yet greater achievements.

Madame Speaker’s address was followed by a discussion of the issues of the day. The committee chairmen Zahid Oruj and Tahir Rzayev and the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Aydin Mirzazade, Fazail Agamali, Aghiya Nakhchivanli, Elshan Musayev, Eldaniz Salimov, Javid Osmanov and Tural Ganjaliyev let it be known what they thought about Mr Erdogan’s visit to Shusha and about the Shusha Declaration. They also covered the concerns of the electors.

Then, the sitting turned to the items on its agenda, of which, Madame Chair remarked, there were fourteen, with the first seven being the Bills coming up for the third reading and having arrived at the Milli Majlis in one parcel. Those Bills are interlinked substantively and contained amendments to 60 laws in connexion with the implementation of the new disability assessment and determination criteria.

Chairman of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev tabled the third-reading amendments to the Law ‘On the Rights of Disabled Persons’ and to the other connected laws. All the drafts had been discussed thoroughly at the meeting of the Committee as instructed by Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, Mr Guliyev mentioned. The deliberations had taken place with the involvement of First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis Ali Huseynli, Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis Adil Aliyev, the chairs of the concerned committees, MPs, Chief of the Milli Majlis Staff Safa Mirzayev and the officials of the specialist ministry. All the issues and questions that had arisen had been clarified; several suggestions made during the debate had been noted.

The MPs Razi Nurullayev, Tahir Karimli and Sabir Rustamkhanli shared their considerations about the Bills, whereafter Musa Guliyev responded to their commentaries and the aforementioned 7 agenda items were voted through the third reading one by one.

Those were:

The draft amendments to the Law ‘On 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, Sentence Enforcement, Housing, Migration, Administrative Offences and Land Codes of the Azerbaijan Republic

the draft amendments to the ‘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’.

The Chair of the Milli Majlis then told the assembly that, pursuant to the Constitutional Law ‘On Regulatory Legal Acts’, the next two agenda items were going to be considered in one reading. Chairman of the Agrarian Policy Tahir Rzayev subsequently tabled the conjugated draft amendments to the laws ‘On Family Farming’ and ‘On Employment’. Both sets are of the unifying nature and have to do with the implementation of the e-Agriculture information system, according to Mr Rzayev.

The committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Razi Nurullayev, Rufat Guliyev and Sabir Rustamkhanli had commented on the drafts before they were voted on, and approved one after another.

It was Chairman of the Milli Majlis Committee for Natural Resources, Energy and Ecology Sadig Gurbanov who presented the first reading of the Bill ‘On the Rational Use of Energy Resources and Energy Efficiency’ being the tenth item on the agenda.

Mr Gurbanov specified that the Bill had been drawn up with reliance on the relevant international experience whilst the current specialist law, enacted 25 years ago, only met the modern requirements partially. Consequently, the arrival of the new draft law could be viewed as being in response to the public order. Mr Gurbanov went further to say that the Bill defined the legal, administrative and economic foundations for the rational use of energy resources and energy efficiency. Besides, the document was intended to regulate the relevant activities of state agencies, natural persons and legal entities, and to govern also the pertaining relations arising amongst them.

The draft law that consists of eight chapters and twenty-three articles lays down the principal goal and agenda of the state in rational use of energy resources and in energy efficiency. The document also embraces the issues concerning organisation and promotion of energy efficiency services and the matters of ensuring the effectiveness of accounting, storage, transfer, distribution and supplying of generated energy, and addresses other matters.

The Bill was lauded by the MPs Vahid Ahmadov, Etibar Aliyev, Fazail Agamali, Sahib Aliyev, Rufat Guliyev, Asim Mollazade and Aziz Alakbarov, all of whom also made their own relevant remarks and suggestions. Sadig Gurbanov replied to their questions, after which the Bill was put on vote and approved in the first reading as tabled.

That was followed by the two agenda items constituting the first readings of the draft amendments to the laws ‘On Retirement Pensions’ and ‘On the Rights of Disabled Persons’. Those two were interrelated substantively as well and so, they were tabled together by Chairman of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev. In his overview, Mr Guliyev told the House that both drafts were intended to strengthen the social protection of the people with disabilities.

Commentaries came from the committee chairman Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Razi Nurullayev, Ali Masimli, Aydin Mirzazade and Fazail Agamali. Musa Guliyev responded to their remarks. Then, the House voted on each of the draft sets separately. Both documents were voted through the first reading with success.

The Assembly also voted for the proposed amendments to the Law ‘On Retirement Pensions’ in the first reading. Musa Guliyev mentioned those draft, too, being thematically akin to the last agenda item, adding that it would reinforce the social protection of civil servants.

First Deputy Chair of the Milli Majlis and Chairman of the parliamentary Committee for Law Policy and State-Building Ali Huseynli informed the MPs of that last agenda item, namely, the first reading of the amendments to the Civil Service Law. Mr Huseynli told the assembled that the Bill was intrinsically connected with the legislative amendments which Musa Guliyev had tabled before and which were incorporated into this set as well.

MP Etibar Aliyev commented that Bill before it was put on vote and approved in the first reading and with that, the current sitting of the Milli Majlis came to an end.

The Press and Public Relations
Department The Milli Majlis