New Azerbaijan Party

Azerbaijani political party

The New Azerbaijan Party (Azerbaijani: Yeni Azərbaycan Partiyası, YAP) is the ruling political party in Azerbaijan, founded on 21 November 1992 under the leadership of Heydar Aliyev. After his election as President of Azerbaijan on 3 October 1993, and the party's victory at 1995 parliamentary elections, YAP became the ruling party, a position it has held since. President Ilham Aliyev has been chairman of YAP since its 3rd congress held on 26 March 2005.

YAP is a member of the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP)^[19] and an observer member of the Centrist Democrat International.^[20]

The party's rule over the country has been described as authoritarian.^[21]

Ideology

The party's stated ideologies are lawfulness, secularism, and Azerbaijani nationalism. It wants to build a "social-oriented" economy, and lists civil solidarity and social justice as the basis of its ideology.^[22] The founder of the party, Heydar Aliyev, was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union until July 1991.^[23]

The New Azerbaijan Party's program highlights the main tasks which it states is aimed at strengthening the state independency, building the democratic, legal and secular state and ensuring the peaceful and prosperous life of the citizens. The principles of an independent state, lawfulness, creative progress, Azerbaijanism, civil solidarity and social justice have been declared as the basis of the party's ideology.^[24]

Rights

The members of party are ensured with following rights:

• to elect and to be elected to authorities of the party;
• to take part freely in the determination of the party's policy and in the discussion of issues related to its activities;
• to participate in the events organized by the party
• to make suggestions for realizing the goals and tasks of the party;
• to use the party's support;
• to discuss and criticize freely all issues related to the party's policy as well as all activities of its bodies;
• to stop membership in the party or to leave the party.^[25]

Organizational structure

• YAP implements its activity all over the territory of Azerbaijan.
• The initial party organization is based on the territorial principle.
• The decision to establish the initial party organization is adopted by foundation meeting with participation at least three members of the YAP and approved by the Executive Board of the district-city organizations. A party member can be registered only in the one party organization.
• The guiding body of the initial party organization is a general assembly. The general assembly is held at least once every three months. The assembly is available by participation of more than half of the members registered in the initial party organization. Decisions are approved by simple majority of votes.^[25]

Congresses

• The 1st Congress of the party was held on 20–21 December 1999, with the participation of more than 2,000 members of the party from different regions of the country, as well as more than 30 foreign representatives.^[26]
• The 2nd Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held in Baku on 21 November 2001. Some amendments were made to the Charter. Ilham Aliyev was elected as a deputy chairman of the party. Heydar Aliyev delivered a speech at the congress. 1952 representatives participated at the II Congress.^[27]
• The 3rd Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held on 26 March 2005 in Baku with participation of more than 1800 members.^[28]
• The 4th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held on 2 August 2008, in the Heydar Aliyev sports and concert complex with the participation of more than 600 members in Baku. The Congress decided to nominate Ilham Aliyev as a candidate for the presidential elections to be held on 15 October 2008.^[29]
• The 5th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held at the Buta Palace in Baku on 7 June 2013. The congress decided to nominate Ilham Aliyev as a candidate for the presidential elections to be held on 9 October 2013.^[30][31]
• The 6th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party was held on 8 February 2018 at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku. The congress decided to nominate Ilham Aliyev as a candidate for the presidential elections to be held on 11 April. Representatives of more than 700,000 members of the New Azerbaijan Party attended at the Congress.^[32]

Electoral history

At the elections (5 November 2000 and 7 January 2001), the party won 62.3% of the popular vote and 75 out of 125 seats. Its candidate Ilham Aliyev was reported by the government to have won 76.84% of the popular vote in the 2003 presidential elections. Ilham Aliyev also won presidential elections of 2008, 2013 and 2018. At the 2005 parliamentary elections, it won 62 out of 125 seats. At the 2010 parliamentary elections, it won 72 out of 125 seats. In the 1 November 2015 parliamentary election, the New Azerbaijan Party won 70 out of 125 seats, thus losing two seats in the National Assembly since the last election.

Presidential elections

National Assembly elections

References

1. "Arxivlənmiş surət". Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
2. Hunter, Shireen (2017). The New Geopolitics of the South Caucasus. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 41–43.
3. "Azerbaijan: Country Profile". 23 May 2024. Archived from the original on 23 January 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
4. "Azerbaijan.az". Archived from the original on 21 April 2024. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
5. https://azertag.az/en/xeber/top_presidential_administration_official_no_religious_belief_no_religious_worship_no_activity_should_take_the_form_of_intervention_in_the_secular_norms_of_the_azerbaijani_state-89912 ^{[bare URL]}
6. ^[4][5]
7. https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/behind-azerbaijan-s-facades/ ^{[bare URL]}
8. Guliyev, Farid; Pearce, Katy E. (6 October 2013). "The Challenges of Electoral Competition in an Oil Rich State: Azerbaijani Pre-Election Report" Archived 6 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine. The Washington Post. Accessed 2 July 2014.
9. "A Brief Description of Azerbaijani Nationalism from its Inception to Today". 6 September 2021. Archived from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
10. "A New Direction in Azerbaijan's Foreign Policy: Irredentism". 28 November 2022.
11. "To All State Parties of the Genocide Convention Azerbaijan's Policy of Irredentism: - Center for Truth and Justice". 31 January 2024. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
12. ""Western Azerbaijan", Pan-Turkism and International Law". 11 January 2024. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
13. "Perspectives | Augmented Azerbaijan? The return of Azerbaijani irredentism". 6 August 2021. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 7 April 2024.
14. ^{[10][11][12][13]}
15. "EU Parliament Condemns Azerbaijan's 'Armenophobia'". «Ազատ Եվրոպա/Ազատություն» Ռադիոկայան. 11 March 2022. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 22 March 2024. The resolution was passed by 635 votes to 2, with 42 abstentions, one month after the Azerbaijani government announced plans to erase Armenian inscriptions from churches in areas retaken by Azerbaijan [...] Azerbaijan's Culture Minister Anar Kerimov claimed that the churches had been built by Caucasian Albania, an ancient kingdom that covered much of modern-day Azerbaijan's territory. He set up a working group tasked with removing "false" Armenian traces from them.
16. (in Russian) Fyodor Lukyanov [ru], Editor-in-Chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs "Первый и неразрешимый". Vzglyad. 2 August 2011. Archived from the original on 22 June 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2013. Армянофобия – институциональная часть современной азербайджанской государственности, и, конечно, Карабах в центре этого всего. "Armenophobia is the institutional part of the modern Azerbaijani statehood and Karabakh is in the center of it."
17. ^[15][16]
18. "parties". IDC-CDI. Retrieved 15 August 2020.
19. "International Conference of Asian Political Parties". Archived from the original on 18 November 2019. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
20. "Parties". Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 3 December 2019.
21. "Azerbaijan's opposition sidelined by snap presidential election". European Forum for Democracy and Solidarity. 14 February 2018. Archived from the original on 2 October 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
22. "The Program of the New Azerbaijan Party". New Azerbaijan Party. 3 August 2023. Archived from the original on 1 October 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2014.
23. "Heydar Alirza oglu Aliyev". New Azerbaijan Party. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
24. "History". www.yap.org.az. Archived from the original on 4 May 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
25. "The Charter of the New Azerbaijan Party". New Azerbaijan Party. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
26. "I Congress". New Azerbaijan Party. 3 August 2023. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
27. "II Congress". New Azerbaijan Party. 3 August 2023. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
28. "III Congress". New Azerbaijan Party. 3 August 2023. Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
29. "The Fourth Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party". Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
30. "The Fifth Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party". Archived from the original on 24 April 2018. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
31. "Official web-site of President of Azerbaijan Republic – NEWS » Speeches". en.president.az. Archived from the original on 5 September 2024. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
32. "6th Congress of New Azerbaijan Party held in Baku VIDEO". Retrieved 30 April 2018.

Further reading

• Ishiyama, John (2008): "Political Party Development and Party 'Gravity' in Semi-Authoritarian States. The Cases of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan". In: Taiwan Journal of Democracy 4/1: 33–53.
• Küpeli, Ismail (2010): Stabilisierung autoritärer Herrschaft: "Das Fallbeispiel Aserbaidschan". Universität Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg 2010.

External links

• Official website (in Azerbaijani and English)