The Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova announced at the plenary meeting of the parliament on 6 November that the liberation struggle of our Army and Nation for Garabagh led by the Commander-in-Chief of Azerbaijan’s Armed Forces Ilham Aliyev had entered the decisive stage. Most of our lands that had suffered the horrors of the Armenian vandalism had already been recovered thanks to successful combat operations. The Azerbaijani flag is flown in the towns of Fizuli, Jabrayil, Zanghilan and Gubadli as well as in 3 boroughs and more than 200 villages.

The Chair said that the Azerbaijani Army was writing new and glorious pages of the world’s military history with its remarkable victories. The efficiency of the integrated development and modernisation policy of our Armed Forces pursued during the 17 years past is being demonstrated in battle now. The one month and ten days of combat demonstrate that the Azerbaijani Army is capable of achieving the impossible since it has punched through the enemy defence lines built over long years and considered impregnable, and has also put out of joint the air defence system and military aviation of Armenia. Crushing blows are being laid on the occupation forces; their personnel and military equipment are being destroyed in large numbers.

Sahiba Gafarova highlighted the growing international support to our righteous cause, saying then that more and more people realised that the Good and the Evil were clinched in a fight on the ancient soil of Garabagh. She went further to say that the Armenian chauvinism and its patrons from the shady side were receiving one crushing punch after another in the same information war that they had been waging against our nation for longer than a century. The almost daily overseas mass media interviews of President Ilham Aliyev and his telling the global community of the current developments in the region and of the stance of our state based on the international laws, and the unmasking of the inhumane nature of the Armenian Fascism play an exceptional and decisive role in this case.

The Speaker spoke then of the tireless and tenacious struggle of our President who is fighting for the just cause of Azerbaijan and has vowed to use every means to restore the territorial wholeness of our country. This struggle by President Aliyev sets a fine example for everyone including the MPs, in her opinion. She expressed a confidence that the day was nigh when the Azerbaijani Army would complete its triumphant march successfully. Soon, the flag of Azerbaijan will fly in Shusha, the crown jewel of Garabagh, as well as in Lachin, Khankendi and other towns and villages. The Speaker ended her speech with the words ‘Long Live the Army of Azerbaijan! Garabagh is Azerbaijan!’

Next, Sahiba Gafarova told the gathered of the 7 items on the agenda of the meeting. MPs commented on the items following the adoption of the agenda.

The committee chairmen Zahid Oruj and Bakhtiyar Aliyev as well as the MPs Azer Badamov, Ali Masimli, Erkin Gadirli, Bahruz Maharramov and Fazil Mustafa took the floor to talk about the social mobilisation in Azerbaijan and about our country feeling proud about recovering its lands. They also mentioned, not without contentment, that we were gaining the upper hand over the enemy in the information war, too, and, again, under the guidance of the Commander-in-Chief Ilham Aliyev.

The discussions about the items of the agenda began after that.

First, the Chairman of the Science and Education Committee Bakhtiyar Aliyev presented for the third reading the document containing draft amendments to the Law ‘On Education’. He mentioned the proposal to include the notion of ‘overseas tertiary education specialty’ in the appropriate articles of the law and, at the same time, to replace the wording ‘recognition and finding the equivalents of the tertiary education specialities of foreign countries (nostrification)’ with the wording ‘recognition of the tertiary education specialties of foreign states’. It was noted that the amendments would streamline the procedure for the recognition of tertiary education completion diplomas, expand the list of recognised documents and provide opportunities and a procedure of recognising sub-bachelor diplomas that either pertain to tertiary education or provide for obtaining it. According to the Committee Chairman, the MPs Rauf Aliyev, Iltizam Yusifov, Etibar Aliyev, Sabir Rustamkhanli and Aghiya Nakhchivanli had commented on the Bill when it had been submitted to the Milli Majlis in the second reading. He added that the considerations of the MPs had been incorporated in the document.

The Bill was put on vote and adopted in the third reading.

Next, Bakhtiyar Aliyev spoke of the draft amendments (in the third reading) to the Law ‘On Vocational Education’, mentioning that it had been drawn up in compliance with the draft amendments to the Law ‘On Education’ and with the purpose of unifying the terminology used in both. Mr Aliyev remarked that the Committee had not received either proposals or comments after the second reading of the document at the Milli Majlis.

Then, the Bill was adopted in the third reading.

The Chairman of the Agrarian Policy Committee Tahir Rzayev presented at the second reading the draft amendments to the Forest Code, the Land Code and the Civil Code as well as to the laws ‘On Land Reform’, ‘On the Land Market’, ‘On Administration of the Municipal Lands’, ‘On the State Duty’, ‘On the State Real Estate Register’ and ‘On Alienation of Lands for State Needs’. Mr Rzayev remarked that the draft had been composed for the purposes of the execution of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic number 1438-VQD ‘On Amending the Civil Code’ dated 28 December 2018. It follows from the Civil Code that the encumbrance and the mortgage, whilst equipotent as debt burdens, are the forms of limitation of the rights in rem. According to the Committee Chairman, MP Sabir Rustamkhanli had suggested rewording several expressions in the Bill when it was deliberated upon at a plenary meeting of the Milli Majlis on 27 October. His proposal, however, was not acted upon due to being identical to the terms already present in the current draft.

The Bill was put on vote and adopted in the second reading after the proposals of MP Rauf Aliyev had been heard.

The Chairman of the Labour and Social Policy Committee Musa Guliyev informed the assembly of the draft amendments to the Labour and Family Codes, saying that the Bill ‘On Amending the Law on Medical Insurance’ being tabled for the second reading was connected with the enforcement of the Law of the Azerbaijan Republic No 1718-VQD dated 3 December 2019. It follows from the document that the matters concerning the compulsory employee medical insurance are to be added to the list of the employee rights and employer obligations stipulated in the Labour Code. The amendments would make it mandatory to include appropriate employee medical insurance details in employment contracts. As regards the proposed amendments to the Family Code, it is stated in them that the medical checks of the people wishing to marry shall be carried out in compliance with the requirements contained in the Law on Medical Insurance. 

The Bill was adopted in the second reading.

The draft amendments to the laws ‘On the Status of the Military Servicemen’, ‘On Protection of the Population Health’, ‘On Motor Traffic’, ‘On the Social Protection of Orphans and Children Deprived of Parental Care’, ‘On Motoring Roads’, ‘On Private Medical Practice’, ‘On the Civil Service’, ‘On Psychiatric Aid’, ‘On Oncological Aid’ and ‘On Restricting the Consumption of Tobacco Products’.

The Chairman of the Defence, Security and Counter-Corruption Committee Ziyafet Asgarov who presented the relevant information summary said that the Bill had been drawn up in connection with the enforcement of the Law No 1718-VQD ‘On Amending the Law on Medical Insurance’ dated 3 December 2019. Mr Asgarov went further to say that because of the transition to the medical insurance the health services to holders of the compulsory medical insurance would be provided as paid with contributions to the compulsory medical coverage in the cases provided for in the corresponding aid package and, in other cases, at the expense of the State Budget.

The financing procedure for medical institutions and for medical aid will be modified, too, consequent to the introduction of the medical insurance. Ziyafet Asgarov pointed out that there had been no proposals and comments regarding the document either during its first reading at the presentation by the Chairman of the Health Care Committee Ahliman Amiraslanov or subsequently. The Chairman of the Committee for Regional Affairs Siyavush Novruzov and the MPs Vugar Bayramov and Aghil Abbas spoke about the Bill during the deliberations that followed. The committee chairmen Ahliman Amiraslanov and Ziyafet Asgarov shed light on the items in the Bill that the MPs had asked them about.

The Bill was put on vote and adopted in the second reading then.

The draft amendments to the Law on Medical Insurance were tabled at the second reading by the Chairman of the Health Care Committee Ahliman Amiraslanov who said that the Decree of the President of Azerbaijan ‘On Improvement of the Administration of the Regulation and Control System for the Financial Services Market’ had assigned the authority to regulate and supervise the financial market (including the insurance services market) to the Central Bank of the Azerbaijan Republic. Consequently, Article 7.2 of the Law ‘On Medical Insurance’ is amended appropriately to conform to the Law ‘On Protection of the Population Health’. Then, the Committee Chairman mentioned that there had been neither proposals nor comments regarding the document from the MPs.

The Bill was put on vote and adopted in the second reading.

The draft amendments to the Law ‘On the Civil Service’ were discussed in the first reading thereafter.  The chief goal of it is to ensure the proper and correct performance assessment of civil servants as well as the identification, promotion and rational application of their potentials are the main goals of the document, according to Kamal Jafarov of the Committee for Law Policy and State-Building who introduced it. The assessment would be done by the appropriate executive authority, namely, the Cabinet of Ministers. MP Jafarov added that civil servant performance assessments would be done at the end of each calendar year in order to stimulate higher professional competence in civil servants, identify their further education needs and assess them for adequacy for their current positions. The final marks would reflect the performance of the assigned tasks by 50 per cent whilst 40 per cent would be determined by the applicable criteria and another 10 per cent would stem from work discipline evaluations.

The civil servant assessment results would be put in scorecards and civil servants would be interviewed upon the final marking to discuss their service performance marks and the commentaries accompanying them. According to Kamal Jafarov, civil servants could then be rewarded, promoted to next qualification rank prematurely, engaged in further education and specialist training for the perfection of their performance or skills, transferred to analogous positions matching their knowledge and abilities or demoted rank-wise depending on the ultimate performance assessment marks. It was then emphasised that a civil servant dissenting from their performance mark would have the right to contest it either administratively or in a court of law. The Committee Chairmen Siyavush Novruzov and Tahir Mirkishili, the Commission Chairman Eldar Guliyev and the MPs Fazil Mustafa, Elshad Mirbashiroglu, Etibar Aliyev and Erkin Gadirli spoke up about the document.

The Bill was put on vote and adopted in the first reading.

At the end of the meeting, the Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova mentioned the forthcoming wonderful red-letter days, namely, the State Flag Day on 9 November, the Constitution Day on 12 November and the National Revival Day on 17 November. She congratulated the MPs on those occasions and expressed her best wishes to our nation.

And the meeting of the Milli Majlis ended there.

The Press and Public Relations Department
The Milli Majlis